Paul Andrews: bu-Log.

New Baby!

2010-03-30T14:23:00.001-06:00

On March 12th our second child, Akira, was born. His due date was March 24th, C-section was planned for the 17th, but he decided the 12th was going to be the day! We had just returned from Whole Foods, and I was putting away the groceries when Ritsuko came down the stairs and told us that her water had just broken! Fortunately, she had already prepared a hospital bag to take, so I got the rest of the food in the fridge and we took off. This was around 1:30 PM; Akira was born via C-section at 8:03 PM.

He is a healthy, good-natured baby and is doing very well. He likes to be awake in the evening, but other than that taking care of Akira has been fairly easy to adjust to. Ritsuko is healing well and is now getting around just fine. Her wound seems like a minor concern compared to try to get enough sleep! Masa has taken the role of big brother and run with it! We are happy he is adjusting so well and are trying to incorporate him into all of the things we do with Akira. He helps change diapers, holds the baby, and even likes to push Akira's baby stroller. Masa has been very loving and will make a great big brother!

As for me, despite a slight lack of sleep and a busier schedule, things are good. All of the tests I had just before Akira was born turned out just fine (still waiting to hear on the fixed bridge practical I took the Tuesday after), Spring Break was fun hanging out with both my friends and family, and now it's back to the school for even more clinical work! Actually, tomorrow will be my first non-screening patient; I will actually get to do something more than just poking around a bit. X-rays, impressions, probings, complete oral diagnosis. Wish me luck!

(Dental School) March Madness

2010-03-12T08:50:00.002-07:00

At the beginning of this school year I was talking with my dental school "big brother." He was telling me that, despite all of the stress during his first year, 2nd year spring semester was definitely the most difficult. I now believe him.

The past month has been crazy with labs, tests, and of course a new baby on the way! The worst was this week: we had 5 tests over 5 days (and 2 tests last Thur-Fri and a practical next Tues)! Colorado has been pretty good so far about not dumping a bunch of tests on us in a short time period, but I guess this was bound to happen sometime.

Not only did we have a lot of tests, but a lot of the tests were difficult. Some were difficult, some were just poorly written tests (pediatric dentistry). Either way, I am glad to be moving past it all!

In non-dental school news, Ritsuko's parents just arrived from Japan yesterday for their 2-month stay in the United States. We've rearranged the house and bought a couple of beds to accommodate them while they are here helping out with the new baby. Masashi was especially excited: tons of new toys from Japan and a buddy (Grandpa Bando) to play with all the time!

They brought Ritsuko and I some nice gifts, too. My favorite is the complete set of "Akira" graphic novels, in Japanese. I plan on doing a little relaxing reading this Spring Break (and studying a bit of Japanese).

Next week is a big week: the baby is coming out on Wednesday, we get our CR-V back from the shop on Thursday, and Spring Break starts on Friday! Wish us luck!

Sony Cybershot H20

2010-02-13T20:59:00.000-07:00

I just bought a new camera one year ago, a little Sony W120, and was very happy with it until the day I noticed a smudge showing up in all the pictures. I cleaned the lens, took the thing apart and tried to clean it, but nothing would get rid of the spot of darkening that appeared in the upper lefthand of all my pictures! The camera is still good for taking to parties and stuff (you don't really see the spot then), but it's just no good for scenic pictures or pictures where the spot falls on a light, solid color.

Anyway, we decided it was time to get a new camera, especially with the baby coming in another month. After a brief interest in getting a DSLR, I decided I wasn't ready to make the investment and went with another Sony, the H20.

I love this camera. The image stabilization is excellent, the flash is strong (very important if you're taking lots of indoor pictures), it has a nice 10x zoom, the screen on the back is big and easy to see in sunlight, and most importantly the pictures look great. As you can see, the camera is a bigger than most of the little point-and-shoots people have, but I like this. Ritsuko's commented several times how this camera looks and feels "like a real camera." It feels good in your hands and is easier to hold steady than most smaller cameras when you're taking low-light pictures without the flash. It also has a removable lens cap, another point that might annoy some people but that I like. It hooks onto the camera like the hand strap and has never gotten in my way when it's hanging there (I attached it to the hand-strap though there is a dedicated place to attach it on the left side of the camera). The video looks great, too, very important for those baby clips! The H20 can even do 720p HD video, though it takes up a lot of memory. Oh, we can also use the battery from the old Sony (and the 4gb memory stick duo), so we always have a spare battery.

The only real negative about the Sony H20 is the fact that the lens isn't as wide as other cameras in its class. I noticed this when I first tried to take a picture of Masa; I was standing as close as I normally would with the old camera but wasn't getting everything in the shot. While this might bug some people, it just means you need to move back a little more than you normally would to get everything framed in the picture. The multitude of positive aspects about this camera more than make up for this one negative.

Well, here are some pictures! At about $225 with free shipping from Amazon, you really can't beat this camera.

Playstation 3

2010-02-05T09:00:00.001-07:00

After filing our tax return, I decided to splurge a little and get a brand-new Playstation 3. We had an Xbox 360, but it recently died (a common problem due to poor design and one of the reason why I chose not to buy another). The Playstation 3 is awesome!

1. The games look better than the Xbox 360 (in my opinion, but it can vary from game to game)

2. It connects to the internet (built-in wireless; no need to spend $100 on a wireless adapter like the Xbox) like a computer. You can check email, facebook, whatever. The best thing is internet video like (though this is hit-or-miss depending on the format any particular site uses). Oh yeah, you don't need to subscribe to anything extra (like Xbox-live) to get on the internet: it's free!

3. Netflix -- stream netflix movies/shows to your TV without having to connect your computer to the TV

4. It plays Blu-ray disks, which we can get through Netflix. Blu-ray looks great and is worth the extra $2 a month to rent through Netflix.

5. Download free demos straight to the PS3. This is great for Masa as he is usually satisfied playing the same level over and over again.

6. It is quite. This is actually a BIG deal! The Xbox 360 was so noisy you usually had to crank up the volume on anything just to drown out its fan.

Ritsuko likes how it can play Blu-ray and internet stuff, Masa likes the games, and I like everything about it. Definitely recommended! Now I just need to fix the Xbox and sell or trade in all that stuff.

Not so bad

2010-02-02T20:28:00.001-07:00

I am happy to say that despite how crappy those two tests were last week I still managed to pull off a B on both of them! Must be the four-leaf clover I carry around in my wallet! The pediatric dentistry test on Monday went pretty well, also, so now I just need to start studying for our removable partial denture midterm on Thursday!

It seems like the tests, the labs, the lectures, etc. never end, but there are a lot of things worse I could be doing (or have done). The nice thing about dentistry is that things never seem to really get boring. Lectures can be boring, but rarely is the lecture material. Labs are never boring, quite the opposite! Labs tend to be hectic but interesting. 8 hours of lab/lecture + a couple of hours of studying/reading every night is MUCH better than any of the following past jobs I've had:

1. supermarket bag-boy & cashier (boring)
2. automobile windshield factory line worker (12h shifts of repetitive lifting)
3. automobile wheel factory line worker (8h shifts of hot, repetitive lifting)
4. Taco Bell employee (gross and boring)
5. funeral home assistant (actually kind of neat, but most of the time boring)
6. English teacher in Japan (living in Japan was AWESOME, my students were FUN, most of the teachers pretty COOL, but being a human tape recorder or spending half my day sitting in the teachers' lounge was BORING)
7. Japanese-English translator at an automobile windshield wiper factory (challenging when I had work, but I usually didn't and I was just sitting in a windowless office looking out on the factory floor and that was boring)

So, despite the stress of school, despite trying to juggle family, friends, and a demanding education, life is pretty good right now!

Suck Double Test Day

2010-01-28T10:20:00.002-07:00

One of the nice things about the dental school here at Colorado is that we rarely have more than one test on any given day. It had been probably more than a year, but Tuesday was one of those rare days. Oral Radiology and Oral Pathology II, our two largest classes (in terms of credit hours), had their first test Tuesday afternoon, back-to-back, after 4 hours of morning lab.

This is what it is, but that Tuesday will probably live in infamy in the minds of many of my classmates. The radiology test seemed easy enough, but many of us were surprised to see our scores (the test was given on our computers and our results given immediately) much lower than anticipated. No clue.

After that was Pathology, a seemingly straight-forward class. Disease X does this this and this, appears here, and affects this population of patients. Rote memorization. Oral Pathology I was actually like this, and I feel like a majority of us did well. Tuesday was different. Tuesday's test taught us that lecture was unimportant and that we were better off just staying home and reading the book. The test was pretty crappy, not difficult, just crappy. The fact that everyone was in the same basket, though, makes these kinds of test more comical than upsetting. Just another day in dental school, I guess!

Dental Costs in Denver

2010-01-25T11:01:00.001-07:00

We were talking about partial denture costs in my removable partial denture course, and it made me curious about the costs of other things. A quick search on Google led to this site:

http://www.bracesinfo.com/dentalcosts/

Using a combination of American Dental Association, American Chamber of Commerce Researchers Association, and inflation data this site presents a little tool to check on dental prices in 300 U.S. cities.
Here's so examples of average prices in Denver. Keep in mind that costs at UC dental school are about half (I think).

Adult Cleaning Exam: $85.93
1 surface Amalgam filling: $126.94
1 surface Composite filling (rear): $121.81
Porcelain Veneer: $866.79
Molar Root Canal: $945.39
Surgical Implant Placement: $2442.17
Surgical Extraction: $248.26
Porcelain on non-precious metal crown: $885.58
Complete Upper Denture: $1394.26
Comprehensive Orthodontics (adolescent): $6578.83
Occlusal Nightguard: $861.66

White Coat Ceremony

2010-01-24T22:25:00.000-07:00

We had our White Coat Ceremony. Despite a very altruistic sounding oath they gave us to read, the event was cool and made everyone feel like we really were going to be dentists in a few years! They told us that the white coat ceremony represented our transition from our didactic-focused education to our clinic experience. Here are some pictures, included a good one with my family of three and a half!

DS2 Fall in Review

2010-01-02T13:34:00.003-07:00

School starts back up in two days, so I figured I'd better write something before classes and lab work begin to swallow my life back up again!

All in all, the Fall semester of my 2nd year of dental school turned out better than I expected. For review, here is my schedule:

Course ID	Title	Hours	Dates
DSBS-6600-B01	PHARMACOLOGY	4.9	Session D1
DSFD-6606-B01	INDIR SNGLE TOOTH REST 3	0.8	Session D1
DSFD-6607-B01	IND SNG TOOTH REST 3 LAB	0.8	Session D1
DSON-6610-B01	ORAL PATHOLOGY 1	1.9	Session D1
DSOT-6610-B01	ORTHODONTICS I	2.1	Session D1
DSOT-6612-B01	ORTHODONTICS 2	0.5	Session D1
DSPE-6600-B01	PERIODONTICS 1	2.6	Session D1
DSRE-6600-B01	TRANSITION CLINIC 1	1.9	Session D1
DSRE-6606-B01	INDIR SNGLE TOOTH REST 2	0.8	Session D1
DSRE-6607-B01	IND SNG TOOTH REST 2 LAB	0.8	Session D1
DSRP-6600-B01	REMOVBLE COMPLTE PROSTH	0.9	Session D1
DSRP-6601-B01	REMVABLE COMP PROSTH LAB	0.9	Session D1
PRMD-6000-B02	ETHICS HLTH PROFESSION 2	1.0	Session M2

Though they are not assigned many credit hours, labs dominated the schedule and my time. Indirect Single Tooth Restoration (2 & 3) - 3 focuses on making inlays & onlays (ISTR 2) and crowns from various materials (ISTR 3). I am sure this is the same at most schools, but our faculty is very particular about your preparations (how you cut the tooth; labs make the crowns, etc.). I would do pretty well on in-class only to get a worse-than-expected grade on the practical examinations. Fortunately, I think I was being too hard on myself as my semester grades turned out just fine.

Another stressful lab was Complete Dentures (Removable Complete Prosthodontics). We make a complete set of dentures, start to finish, in order to learn not just what we will be doing as dentists but also what the lab technicians who make the dentures in the real world have to do. Taking impressions, making the wax base, setting the teeth: there are many steps at which something could go wrong. In the end the faculty was pretty lenient in their grading.

Pharmacology was a lot of work studying and memorizing drugs and represents a large section of material on our Board Exam Part II. Oral Pathology is another class of memorizing large amounts of information that we will be tested over on Boards Part II. I did well in both classes, though I missed the A in Oral Path by literally one test questions! Oh well, this just goes to demonstrate how little meaning there is between A, B, and C in dental school: one fact can make the difference between a 4.0 and 3.0 or a 3.0 and a 2.0. For the record, though, at some dental schools every point counts towards a grand percentage used to determine your class rank. These kinds of statistics are really only important for students seeking out specialty programs. Dental school (like many medical schools) is ultimately a pass/fail system (some dental schools actually do use a pass/fail system).

Periodontics was another "book-heavy" class found on the Boards, but the professors teaching style and testing methods allowed us to focus more on learning the material instead of just memorizing it. Orthodontics, on the other hand, was both poorly organized and poorly taught and became one of the most difficult classes of the semester for many people. You win some, you loose some.

Let's see, what's left? Ethics classes = BS waste of time. A few courses in medical law would be MUCH more useful than analyzing some rare ethical dilemmas (which were often moot cases as there are laws dictating a medical practitioner's ultimate choice).

Transition clinic was the last class of the semester and introduced us mainly to the computer record system we will be using in the clinic for the next 2 years. We continue this into the Spring and will start seeing patients very soon!!

Many people say 2nd year of dental school is the worst. I can see why, though it's turning out not to be so bad. We'll see how Spring semester turns out!

Fall in Colorado

2009-09-26T21:43:00.000-06:00

It has been a few weeks since I last posted, but I honestly have not had a free minute to write until this weekend. Tons of lab work, tests to cram for, Delta Sigma Delta initiation, and of course family time have all made the second half of September a busy one.

Tests: we had our Oral Pathology 1 midterm last Monday and our second test for Pharmacology Wednesday. The oral pathology test went great; it was much easier than I was expecting and definitely "over studied." Pharmacology, on the other hand, was the other way around. I felt like I had studied enough, but just barely squeaked out a B. I think I had studied enough, actually, but just didn't focus on the write material. This is the first non-dental specific class where the professor actually attempts to narrowing in on the aspects most relative to dentistry. Those were the points I didn't put enough time into for Wednesday's test. I think I have it figured out now, though, and hope to see improvement on the next exam.

Lab: currently we have three active lab classes. In "Complete Dentures," or Removable Prosthodontics I, we are making, well, a set of full dentures. I need to start taking pictures of my projects, but basically we are doing everything from making custom trays to placing the fake teeth in wax. There are no really patients, of course; everything is done on a typodont. The other two labs are Indirect Single Tooth Restoration 2 and 3 in which we learn about and how to prepare crowns, inlays, & onlays (with the focus being on crowns).
In ISTR 2, we are currently at making a die system on which to wax up our crowns for tooth # 30 (lower right 1st molar). We've prepped the tooth, made provisional crowns, taken impressions, made casts, made a custom tray, taken more accurate impressions, made a more accurate cast, and made a die system. The die system basically consists of a set of pins placed beneath the cast you've made of your patients teeth (with your crown prep finished) and set in another layer of stone in a way that enables you to remove sections or particular teeth from the arch and still be able to replace them exactly where they are supposed to be. Pretty cool, but nerve-wracking when you are taking a reverse drill-press or what amounts to a small hack-saw to a fragile bunch of stone teeth that are the culmination of hours of work!
ISTR 3 is simple so far: we are making gold crowns in ISTR 2, but need slightly different technique, materials, etc. for porcelain-fused-to-metal crowns (which is what we do in ISTR 3). Just started prepping #12 (upper left 1st premolar) Friday; trying to get that nice, clean finish-line is much more difficult when you are "drilling" looking through a mirror!

Well, you get the idea. On the bright side, I have been doing some fun stuff. Our Delta Sigma Delta initiation party was a blast, and I went to the Colorado Symphony Orchestra for the first time about 2 weeks ago with a couple of friends (Cody and KC, above). $5 student tickets for Masterworks concerts! We had got $75 seats, the best in the house, for $5. Unbelievable.

Today, Ritsuko, Masashi, and I drove up towards Rollinsville (on the Peak-to-Peak scenic highway) only to get stopped in construction-induced traffic jam. Fortunately, I had enough mind to IMMEDIATELY turn around and pull into a picnic area we had just passed. It was Cold Springs Campground (and picnic area) in Arapaho National Forest, and it ended up being just what we were looking for. The campground and picnic area was ok, too close to a fairly busy road, but take a hike up the mountain behind the campground and you will be in for a real treat! Pine forest interspersed with large, young stands of aspens, open areas with plenty of elk tracks, and beautiful views of Mt. Evans, and other snow-capped peaks both south and west of the Idaho Springs area. The climb was steep, but easy with plenty of sticks and boulders to keep Masa busy climbing and playing around. We had a great time.

Quick Update

2009-09-13T21:40:00.000-06:00

Just finishing up a great weekend in between two test-less weeks! My friend lent us her condo up near Winter Park for the weekend, so Ritsuko, Masa, and I left Thursday afternoon and stayed for two nights. Great little place with a wonderful view and easy access to tons of cool stuff, not the least of which are two ski resorts and Rocky Mountain National Park! We decided that two small places will definitely be much more fun than one big house in the future. Oh, and yes, I did have one class on Friday that I missed. No big deal, though, I've been keeping up on stuff.

Masa and I at the top of Rollins Pass

So starts another week. Oral Pathology tomorrow at 10, so I'll probably go in early to get some practicing in. I went in early Thursday morning last week and was able to composite restorations on 13MO, 14MOD, and 15MO in about 45 minutes, with only #14 needing some touch-up grinding and polishing. Fun stuff. This week should be pretty easy, honestly. I'd probably take another 3-day weekend in the mountains if we didn't have our Delta Sigma Delta initiation party on Friday.

One more friday in the bag

2009-09-05T00:08:00.002-06:00

Today was a good day. Beautiful Colorado weather; cycled in to school, arrived at 8. In 90 minutes I managed to polish off one nice crown prep on #30 and a good inlay prep on an old MO on #19. Slow for a dentist? Yes. Good for a second year practical? Absolutely. Follow that up with a little studying, an ASDA meeting over lunch, and a solid 98% on my first (and easiest) pharmacology exam, and the stage was set for a good, relaxing weekend.

I was home by 3, so we went to the HAR-mart to get some of our Asian-food basics, then Masa and I told a walk and harassed the ants in the park across the street. They have one 100x100 yard square of this park kept nice and trim with a Navajo memorial sculpture in it, while the other 100x100 yard square is left as a wild high-plains field. In that field, there are about 20 nice sized ant hills, to which Masa has taken an interest lately. I forgot the camera, but after a little exploratory digging, we managed to find where the ants kept their larva under one of the larger mounds. It was amazing how quickly the ants started grabbing their young and carrying them off into unmolested areas of the mound.

Should be a nice relaxing Labor Day Weekend. Have a good one!

Practicing

2009-09-03T21:33:00.003-06:00

I didn't really "practice" much my first year of dental school. I did well enough with waxing to not have to put in any extra hours, and my "satisfactory" grades in operative (prepping and restoring Class I, II, etc. on plastic teeth) seemed too much like a fait accompli to worry about too much.

This semester, though, things have changed. The denture-making process is going fairly smooth, but the indirect restoration stuff will definitely take some work! I've been trying to put in a solid 2 hours a day of practicing crown preps recently. Getting a nice finish line with proper positioning, accurate morphology, adequate occlusal reduction, and trying not to hit the adjacent teeth when working in the contact areas seem to require planning and consistency just as much as they do a steady hand. Musicians, artists, actors, etc. are constantly honing their skills through repetition and practice; why should dental students (and dentists) approach their "art" any differently?

In other news, first test of the semester is tomorrow: pharmacology. I'm not worried about it at all; not only is the material fairly easy, but 80% of the questions are based on questions present on the practice test we were given. Smooth sailing. . .

Mom & Dad visit for the Weekend

2009-08-30T22:22:00.003-06:00

My parents flew in from Indiana Thursday, and we have been nothing but busy everyday. Needless to say, I have gotten absolutely zero studying done. There are a lot of things more fun to do than studying, though, such as. . .
driving up Pike's Peak, taking a tour through the Cave of the Winds, walking around Garden of the Gods, going out to eat at Pho '79 and WaterCourse Food, going to an art exhibit put on by a fellow dental student, visiting the Denver Botanic Gardens (and getting an annual family membership), and making sushi.Oh, and how could I forget the Delta Sigma Delta "White Trash" rush party on Friday night! It has been a great weekend, but I admit that all this driving around and going out to eat is more exhausting than just going to school and studying! I'm looking forward to getting back into the groove this week; I'd better, we have our first pharmacology test on Friday.

Picking up the pace

2009-08-26T21:19:00.004-06:00

Classes are now in full swing; here's my initial take:

Complete Denture: great instructors, good lectures, so far I've had enough time to get my lab work done in lab.

Orthodontics: Can't judge the instruction yet, but the manual they gave us is complete crap. Fortunately, I find reading the book somewhat interesting.

Periodontics: love the subject matter + a fun, in-your-face instructor = a great class

Pharmacology: prof seems good, but the pace is kind of slow and the material a bit dry

Indirect Single Tooth Restoration: this will probably be one of the most difficult, time consuming classes. Doing crown preps probably won't be easy, but the faculty are very helpful, the lectures good, and it's kind of fun being up in the lab.

Oral Pathology: I hear this will be our most difficult subject this semester due to the shear amount of information. I think the prof will be good, but we'll see how the class goes!

Lots of reading to be done. My parents are coming tomorrow, so I was running around today getting stuff ready. Then, I need to pick them up tomorrow morning before I go to class. Not much time to study, but I'm glad they're coming out now and not later in the semester. Anyway, time to get some work done before bed.

Reading before class

2009-08-23T19:56:00.002-06:00

My goal this semester is to read class material for a class prior to lecture, so I was up early today getting through some pharmacology handouts. This is much easier to do when the read material consists of well organized, focused handouts as opposed to indiscriminately assigned book reading. Fortunately, the pharmacology handouts fall into the former category.

We also had some friends over today, so lots of time just hanging out at home and at the pool. It was a good day, and I'm ready for a busy week!

National Board Dental Exam (NBDE) Part 1

2009-08-23T00:16:00.004-06:00

I'll just start out with something for the one or two dental students or predents reading this: it wasn't that hard and odds are that you will pass.

Part 1 of "the boards" is a 400 multiple-choice question, 7 hour test that you must pass to become a dentist in the United States. It tests mostly stuff you would have learned in a good undergraduate biology program (minus the section on dental anatomy and occlusion), or what you spend the majority of your first year in dental school studying. Human anatomy, physiology, pathology, etc.: the foundation of most professional medical programs.

Now, though I said it wasn't that hard, that doesn't mean I didn't study for it. Of course, taking Part 1 right at the of your first year of dental school is helps (everything is still fresh). The University of Colorado is one of a handful of schools that do this; most schools give their students time during or after their 2nd year. Regardless, I studied probably an average of 6-8 hours a day, 5 days a week for 6 weeks in preparing for the boards. Some of this "studying" might not have been the most focused or productive, but that's just my estimate.

How did I do? Pretty well. The test is scaled (meaning missing 25 questions this year doesn't yield the same score as missing 25 questions last year), and one needs to receive a 75 or higher to pass. Scaling is done to fit a certain percentage of test takers into a particular score. Our biochemistry prof wanted to have half the class with an A- or higher, so he scaled (well, he actually curved, just adding points on) the test scores to get half of our class into that range. Scaling is also done to compare results from different versions of a test. Here is scaling percentages that came with my test (I think they have used for the past couple of years), listing the scaled score first followed by the percentage of test takers being put into that score category:

99: 0.7%
96-98: 2.2%
93-95: 5.9%
90-92: 12.1%
87-89: 18.5%
84-86: 21.2%
81-83: 18.5%
78-80: 12.1%
75-77: 5.9%
below 75: 2.9%

It's not hard to see that this is a nothing more than a normal bell-curve, no magic formula or anything. Notice the "below 75" category: that means that 2.9% of test takers are guaranteed to fail once scores are scaled. It's not a curve (where points are added on to bump everyone up), it's a scaled score. Sucks for those 2.9%, but going into it thinking that you have a 97% success rate is really how you should be approaching it. I mean come on, taking a test where 97% percent of the test takers are guaranteed to pass should not stress you out unless you're a slacker who has always just barely managed to stay afloat.

Now that you know what makes up the scaled score, you'll understand mine: 87. I fell within the 60.6-79.1 percentile, which is above average and fine with me! If you ever get on Student Doctor Network you've probably noticed that most of the scores posted by people fall in the high 80s/90s. Remember, board scores really only matter if you're applying for specialties or are a foreign-trained dentist trying to get into a program in the U.S., and that's who most of these people are posting these scores. For most of us, the boards are basically Pass/Fail. Actually, the boards WILL be Pass/Fail as of 2012. Another thing you might notice on SDN is people saying something like "I got 89 percentile. . . ," the number referring to their scaled score. This is incorrect, they did not miss less questions than 89% of other test takers, they simply got a scaled score of 89, a number with no significance in and of itself other than that it is above 75 and passing.

There is one more set of scores on this test that will help put all of this in perspective, the raw scores. This is how many question you got right out of 100 for each of the four sections. Here are mine followed by the national average in parentheses:

Anatomic Science: 79 (64.6), Microbiology/Pathology: 74 (65),
Biochemistry/Physiology: 75 (60.4), Dental Anatomy/Occlusion: 85 (73.4).

Add it all up and you'll see that I received a scaled score of 87 with only 313/400 question answered correctly. You can miss approximately half of the questions and still pass.

In conclusion, Part 1 of the boards is not that bad as long as you've put sometime into studying for them.

DS2 Start

2009-08-22T23:19:00.004-06:00

It has been over 4 months since my last blog post, but the kind words of a new DS1 here at Colorado who read my blog encouraged me to begin writing again. And, despite all this time of not writing, it's nice to know that when you type "university of colorado dental student" into Google my blog comes up first!

We started our 2nd year on Wednesday after nearly 4 weeks off. I personally was glad to get back to school; actually, I bet a lot of my class was excited to get started again. This semester represents a significant transition away from the books and into the clinic. Though we will still be in lecture a lot, the classes are all more directly related to dentistry.

2nd year, Fall semester line-up:
Pharmacology
Oral Pathology
Orthodontics
Periodontics
Indirect Single Tooth Restoration (crowns, inlays, etc.)
Removable Prosthodontics (making a set of complete dentures)
Transition Clinic (begins in November)

Unlike last year, this semester is characteristically lacking in courses with names similar to classes we took in undergrad (anatomy, biochemistry, etc.). All in all, it looks to be an exciting, challenging semester.

Speaking of excitement and challenges, Ritsuko will be giving birth to our 2nd child sometime next March! We have been wanting to have a second child for some time now and decided now was as good a time as any. We haven't decided yet whether Ritsuko will be having the baby here (in America) or in Japan, but either way the next 6 months should be pretty exciting!

Odd Semester

2009-04-01T11:02:00.005-06:00

This semester has been kind of weird so far. Nothing has been too difficult, but I think the combination of a strange schedule, Ritsuko and Masa going to Japan twice within a 6-month period (they will go again at the end of May), lots of vacationing, and moving to a new place has given a kind of disorganized feeling to everything. I just don't feel like I'm complete in school, and if you look at this schedule you might see why! We finished our spring break over a week ago just to have what amounted to another 5-day weekend. Snow day last Friday + weekend + Monday with only one, skippable class (I did not skip, by the way) + Tuesday with no classes = Spring Break #2!

It wasn't really a spring break #2 for me, but I did do some fun stuff. Friday & Saturday night Ritsuko was kind enough to let me stay the weekend with my dental fraternity (Delta-Sigma-Delta) up at a place in Frisco. Hot tub, drinking games, billards, and of course snowboarding. I didn't want to use any of my A-Basin passes (need to save some to ride with my Uncle Don and cousin Adam!!! and hopefully with Ritsuko sometime this season), so I hiked up from the top of Loveland Pass to the highest point I could find and rode down in the freshes powder of the year. 2 hours up hiking in snowboard boots (no snowshoes), probably a total of 1 hour sitting around breathing hard and enjoying the view, and 10 minutes of unmarked alpine terrain. The sunburn on my nose and upper lip was well worth it! The route I took was 4/5 of a mile long with a 1500 ft. elevation gain up to the Continental Divide. Here is what you would see from the top in the summer. I did not take any pictures myself, though, sorry.

Anyway, school is going well. I have started studying for Part I of the boards in addition to my normal class studies. The one thing I have NOT been doing enough of is getting into the sim clinic to practice preps and restorations (fillings). It's probably because we have not had class since our practical before spring break (it will have been 3-weeks when we finally have class again on Friday). Oh well, I'll get back into it.

Anyway, we are loving the new place and hope that home prices in Denver continue to dive so that our landlord's company will keep renting it to us for the next 3 years instead of putting it back on the market! That's all for now.

Busy Week

2009-03-07T09:26:00.003-07:00

This week was a pretty busy week at school with three tests and a lab practical. Tuesday was a general pathology test (mainly oncology), Wednesday was immunology, and Thursday was doubled up with an occlusion lab practical in the morning and our cariology final in the afternoon. If you're wondering, cariology is an extra class they through in about biology and treatment of dental caries. The class basically combines what we already learned in intro to microbiology with the clinic application we are learning in our operative dentistry class.

In other news, we have finalized everything for our new townhome and will get the keys on March 18th, the day we get back from our little excursion to Moab, Utah. I think we'll start packing a few things today and try to get most of our packing done before we head off for spring break. So, next week will be a little busy, with packing to do, a physiology test, and an operative dentistry practical exam. But, we (Ritsuko, Masa, and I) are all really excited to move, so it should go pretty quickly!

Movin' movin' movin'...

2009-02-28T21:00:00.012-07:00

Today was look-for-a-new-apartment day. Ritsuko, Masashi, and I went driving around the area looking for a bigger place to call home. We like the apartment (and it's price), area and school system that we live in now, but our current place is just a little too small and crowded feeling. We also don't like the fact that on the 1st floor (which is the only floor 2-bedroom apartments are offered) people are always walking by and can see right into our apartment. We've been talking about getting a new place since Ritsuko and Masa got back from Japan. We had checked out a kind of dumpy place nearby on Thursday, but today was our first day to really get out and look at different places.

We drove through quite a few places, not finding anything we really liked, and then happened upon a really nice looking place and decided to check it out. Nice grounds, nice pool, nice rec. area and stuff, and they offered a 1400 sf 3-bedroom condo, with garage, for about $450/month more than what we currently pay. That's a lot more than we're paying now, but we decided to check it out. Beautiful! Everything new, nice, wonderful looking, lots of space, 3rd floor nice nice nice. The only thing was that the living/kitchen didn't really get much light from the outside. We thought "well, we'll just move in and then pay the $300 to switch condos when another place with better natural light opened up.

So, excited about moving into Whisper Sky Condos, we went home and I got to work on the online application. I don't know how it started, but the natural light issue came up and we began reconsidering the big move we were about to make. Instead of guessing if this condo was the right choice or not after we had signed a lease, we went back and asked to see it again. This time, we went up by ourselves, and the first thing we did was go into the condo and make sure all the lights were off. At 2:30 in the afternoon, the living room was dim and the kitchen so dark it was unusable.

While many people like a dim, cozy cave-like atmosphere for their home, we have always enjoyed letting as much natural sun and air in as possible. There was no way this apartment was going to work, so we decided just to stay at Huntington Ridge (our current place) until something better opened up at Whisper Sky. Then, a few hours later, we got a return phone call about another townhouse I had asked about in a different complex. A 1250 sf, 2-story, 2-bed, 2.5-bath in a nice place just down the street. I said we'd come look at it even though I was thinking we'd just stay at our current location until something at Whisper Sky opened up.

Well, checking out that townhouse was the best move we could have made. While not quite as flashy and with less community perks than Whisper Sky, this townhouse is spacious, bright, open to greenspace, away from busy roads, across the street from a park, AND only about $100 more than what we currently pay in a place that gives us 3/4 less space (and a patio so small it's useless)! We got home, talked about it, and decided it's a GO: we'll be moving April 1st (granted our application and everything goes fine, which it should).

We'll miss the year-round hottub (which has been closed for a month now) and won't really enjoy paying the one-month penalty fee for breaking our lease, but we'll welcome having a bigger place, nice balcony, two stories, nice big oval bathtub, green lawn right out in front of our place, and nobody walking by looking into our home. The new location might add an extra 7 minutes onto my daily bike ride, but we'll remain just as close (or far) from all of our favorite shopping, parks, and friends. The pictures on this post are of our new-home-to-be.

Oh, another thing: if you're looking for a great program to shrink your pictures for the web, thumbnails, or to just take up less space on your Mac hard drive, go download iResizer. Keeps the sweet Mac look and is super-easy to use.

DS1 Semester 2 Update

2009-02-26T13:37:00.011-07:00

It's amazing how quickly time flies when you're having fun! The spring semester here at Colorado is going well. My entire month of January was spent entertaining guest and being entertained, both here in Denver and away, and honestly things got a little too hectic for me. Let's see, one weekend my friend from Delaware came out to do some skiing, another weekend my Uncle came out for 4 days to ski, and yet another weekend I flew out to Philadelphia to hang with one of my good friends at Penn Dental. Also, every Monday I WAS in Denver I threw a "Rock & Roll Sushi" party where I basically invited my whole dental class and some others to my little apartment to eat self-rolled sushi and play Rock Band! It was all fun, but I'm glad Ritsuko and Masa are back from Japan (they got back on Feb. 9th) and I can be done with the bachelor life until the next time they travel to Japan.

Currently, Ritsuko and I are looking for a different apartment or house to rent. Masashi starts school (Kindergarten) in July, and we would like to find a slightly bigger place before he starts. Our place now is nice, just a little too small for the three of us. We're actually going to look at a nice 1200 sft townhouse nearby that has its own little sauna in the master bedroom! The only downside to moving before our lease is up in July is having to pay a month's rent penalty. So, it really has to be worth it to move, but like I said, we think it's important to get settled before Masa starts school.

As for school life, spring semester has been pretty relaxed. We have had a lot of days with only one or two classes up until now, and none of the classes are too difficult or require ungodly amounts of studying. I looks like things will change some after Spring Break, though. On top of a tighter schedule, we will also need to begin studying for Part I of the boards. We take Part I in July, but are scheduled in classes all through the summer, so we won't have any time allotted just for preparing for the boards. While it will be nice to get done with Part I after our first year, the hectic rush to get all of the information taught that we need to know before July 14th makes things a little nerve-wracking. Oh well, I guess that's dental school, right?

Well, in just over a week Ritsuko, Masa, and I will be heading for a fun Spring Break in Moab, Utah! Until then, enjoy some pictures of colorful Colorado.

<-On a frozen Echo Lake up near Mt. Evans.

Masa helping me prep a plastic tooth in the simulation clinic ->

<-Ritsuko and I testing the "smile detector" on our new camera

Rob (from Delaware) and I at A-Basin skiing/snowboarding ->

<-Mike (Penn Dental) and I in Times Square, NYC

1st week back

2009-01-09T20:12:00.002-07:00

This week has been an eventful week as far as school goes. Yesterday we took our first impressions (on fake teeth) and poured our first casts, and then today we practiced using a highspeed handpiece for the first time! My casts turned out OK, no bubbles. The lab was pretty crowded, though, with all 52 of us split between the two labs mixing stone and alginate, but it went fairly smoothly. The simulation clinic was even more fun, but we have a lot of homework for the next week: memorize what the names of a bunch of burs and instruments and what the code numbers on them mean. Not too hard, just have to take the time to do it. We used our handpieces today to practice preping (drilling out parts) this little practice pad. It had different shapes on it, some which resembled preps you might do in certain teeth. It had 3 layers: white (enamel), yellow (dentin), and red (pulp). The idea was to prep the shape without going deeper than the dentin and maintaining the margins (represented by the black outline of the shape). Everyone was dusty from the plastic residue of the practice pad, but everyone sounded like they were having fun!

Some of our other classes aren't too fun, like Physiology. I do like the subject, but the class is just boring. Cariology should be OK, but we don't have that too often. There's also General Pathology, but we haven't had a lecture in there yet. Microbiology should be good, but we don't get around to that until later in the semester.

Tonight, some friends are coming over to play Rock Band. Nothing too exciting, as I'll probably go in to school tomorrow to study and finish up a couple more impressions/cast I need to make.

Other 1st Semester classes at UCSODM

2009-01-07T16:03:00.002-07:00

We had a lot of classes first semester besides Anatomy and Biochemistry, most of which seemed to be of minimal importance. Let's list them out with a short (opinionated) description:

Intro to Microbiology: somewhat difficult, very relevant to Part I boards, but wasn't sure what the point was considering the fact that we have full-blown Micro this semester (DS1 Spring).

Professional Decision Making: a completely pointless, 1/2 ethics 1/2 statistics course. Obtained absolutely zero knowledge from this class that will prove to be helpful to my dental career.

Introduction to Dentistry: The overview of the different disciplines of dentistry was interesting, standing around in clinic looking for someone to hold suction for was not.

Introduction to Dental Materials: kind of interesting, actually learned some use stuff in this class. But, it's an "intro" class, meaning we will have the actual class at a later date. Now that we are in operative (sim clinic), though, I can appreciate why they might have wanted to introduce us to dental materials without going into too much detail right away.

Dental Morphology: this course actually consumes a lot of your time as it involves creating properly formed teeth out of wax. There is a lecture portion of the class, too, which covers the anatomy of the various teeth. This is probably the most frustrating class for many people, as whether or not your tooth looks "good" is very subjective and depends upon the grader. Learning the anatomy of the teeth is obviously very important, though, for both working as a dentist and passing Part I of the boards. This course actually continues into the Spring a week or two, and our final is next Monday.

There it is, the low-down on UCSODM (University of Colorado [Denver] School of Dental Medicine) 1st semester courses.

Other 1st Semester classes at UCSODM

2009-01-07T16:03:00.000-07:00

Dental School Semester 1 in Review: Biochemistry & Anatomy

2008-12-28T21:27:00.003-07:00

I'm back finally and ready to fill you in on my first semester of dental school. The fact that I haven't posted anything since the end of my first month should tell you that things were pretty busy. I did have some free time, but the last thing I wanted to do with the little bit I had was sit in front of this computer for another 30 minutes. Anyway, what I'll do is breakdown the semester by class, so you can see what we have to deal with our first semester at U. of Colorado. I don't know how typical our schedule is, given we take Part I of the Boards the summer after our first year, but it will give you some idea what dental school here is like. And then, if I have time, I'll throw in some of the fun stuff I did this semester!

Biochemistry:
We had biochemistry classes from August 19th through October 24th. You can see the schedule (click here), but we basically had class 2 hours a day, 4 days a week. It was the first of our "big" classes for 1st semester, being given about 5 credit hours for the class. If you had 1st semester of biochemistry in undergrad, you won't find that surprises you, but the speed at which the class progresses can be challenging. If you didn't have biochem in undergrad, I the class could be a little more difficult. The most challenging aspect of our class was the fact that the professor would use "more than one but not all" as a choice for many of the questions on our tests, which were multiple choice. Of course, if you came from a school where the biochem teacher would give you a blue book and tell you to start drawing structures of everything you know, a slightly tougher multiple choice doesn't seem that hard. The tests could be hard, but everything was curved so that 2/3 of the class ended up with either and A or A-. No one failed. Oh, and if you really love drawing structures you'll find our Biochem class dissappointing: you will never have to draw any structures for the tests. Being able to draw structures might help you remember stuff, but you'll probably find your time spent better just going through the powerpoints and practice tests. Another thing, there's really no reason to read from the book.

Anatomy:
Our anatomy class started October 19th and went through the end of the semester. We started 7-hour days of anatomy on Oct. 22nd and dissection lab on the 28th. While we didn't have 7-hour days everyday, it was about a 9 credit hour class crammed into half of a semester, so you can imagine how busy things were. The class really consisted of five parts: gross anatomy, neurology, angiology, histology (without all the histological slides, thank god), and very simple embryology.
Gross anatomy was only from the waist up and no muscles of the forearm or hand. Obviously, the focus was on head and neck, which was very detailed and challenging. The craziest part was when we used the "Butcher Boy" band saw to bisect the upper-half of the cadaver along the midline (think down the middle of the nose) and then procede to dissect various parts of the head, nasal cavity, oral cavity, orbit, and cranial cavity on both sides of the body. Muscles were usually easy; the most difficult part was finding and keep straight the various nerves and their branches throughout the head and neck.
Neurology was probably the most time-consume part of the class, have to learn what kind of axons went where, what they did, where they would leave one nerve and joine another, where their cell bodies resided in either the central nervous system or peripherial nervous system, and where information was relayed to in the various parts of the brain.
Angiology was simple but also somewhat time consuming: basically we had to be able to tell you the route blood would flow from the heart to some part of the body and then back to the heart. Sometimes, the professor would say one particular route was blocked and so you'd have to detail a less obvious route. We did not deal with dieseases of the circulatory system.
Histology was simply an overview of the various types of cell and tissue types of the body. Pretty straight forward, and I don't remember there being any histological slides (as there are no histological slides on the boards).
Embryology was the easiest part and consisted primarily of knowing what parts of the head and neck developed from which of the four pharyngeal arches. Very straight forward and easy to remember.
All in all, anatomy was a memorable experience. I usually spent 5 more hours a day outside of class studying for this class once it started. Most everyone else was studying like this or more, though, so there were always people at school to study with. This made things go fairly smoothly, even making it fun sometimes! Well, everyone says anatomy is our hardest class, and I got through with a B, so I'm a happy camper.

These were our main two classes for the 1st semester. I'll go over the myriad of other classes we had in my next segment.

Dental School at One Month

2008-09-17T09:58:00.002-06:00

Things are getting progressively busier and more difficult. This week is actually a little slow due to the accreditation committee being here, so I have a little more time to study during the day than usual. Biochemistry takes up the bulk of my studying time. There's a lot to know, and although our tests are multiple choice, the professor uses "more than one but not all" a lot for a choice, which means you really have to know what fits and what doesn't.

Speaking of tests, we had our first biochemistry test last week: I got an A-, but only after a 13% curve! The test was much more difficult than anyone had anticipated (the highest uncurved score was maybe 90-91%), yet our prof. said that his hardest test was probably still easier than the easiest anatomy test!! We don't begin anatomy until October, but I'm already looking forward to it (sarcasm).

The other class that requires a lot of work is dental morphology. I was up in the lab (it's on the 2nd floor with lots of nice windows, not in the dungeon like many dental schools) yesterday with my friend Anil, planning to finish up waxing #6 (upper right canine). I noticed, though, that it didn't quite follow the arch of the other teeth the way it should, so I started trying to adjust. Well, it just got worse, took too much wax off, worse, worse, and then crap, I just had to start from the beginning again. I guess it will help me wax more quickly (which is necessary for the lab practicals), but it's frustrating at the same time.

Well, things are going well overall. I need to study for our Micro test today.

The first 2 weeks

2008-08-31T09:57:00.003-06:00

We have finished our first two weeks of class at University of Colorado school of Dental Medicine. You can check out the first years' schedule here, but so far it hasn't been too intense. Microbiology is just a very basic introduction to micro (we have full Medical Microbiology in the Spring). Biochemistry has the potential to get more difficult, but it should all be review for anyone who has had undergrad biochem. "Boot Camp" is nothing more than an introduction to the various aspects of dentistry, from HIPAA regulations to what's involved in the various specialties. It's a very informative class, but we'll probably forget most of the information and just end up relearning it when it becomes relevant. It IS good to get the general idea of what dentistry involves, though.

The most time consuming class so far is dental morphology, which involves shaping teeth out of blobs of wax. We spend a lot of time in the lab working on this, but it's fun because we just work at our own pace, whenever we want (pretty much), chat, listen to music, etc. You're actually using dental instruments to do the work, too, so we're getting into the practical "hands-on" part of dentistry early. I think we'll get into the simulation clinic sometime soon, too.

We've been busy after school, as well, with all of the various parties and rush events the two dental fraternities (both co-ed, of course) have put together. Two words: free food! We also had a BBQ in the park put together by the 2nd years last Thursday. We met our big brothers/big sisters and they gave us all a DVD of study/helpful materials from their first year. The feeling of camaraderie at Colorado seems to be pretty strong, and everyone seems more than willing to help each other out.

I've made some good friends, too, within the past two weeks. Like a couple of my good friends back at IPFW, they like to have fun but are still serious about studying and doing well in school. We have an hour for lunch each day, and so far I've just spent it playing Frisbee or just hanging out and talking. That might change as things become busier, but so far dental school is not very stressful.

To anyone considering going to a cheaper in-state school over some place you like better just so you can save some money: go where you will be happy and enjoy your time the most! I think about how glad my wife and I are that we are in Colorado and not Indiana every single day. I get to spend over nine hours of my day, 5 days a week, on a beautiful campus surrounded by other professional students and great people from my own class, and do my work and studying in a very comfortable, beautiful environment. I ride my bicycle to school on a nice, clean, paved bike path, and I get to look out at the Rocky Mountains everyday on my ride home. Yes, you will be a dentist no matter which dental school in graduate from, but the extra $20,000 a year I pay in tuition IS worth it to live here and go to a school that I love. A lot of people say out of school and on SDN say "save your money," but I honestly cannot imagine having gone anywhere else.

Anyway, things are going well. I'll have to start taking my camera to school and getting some pictures.

First Day of Classes

2008-08-19T07:35:00.002-06:00

Today is our first day of classes at University of Colorado Denver School of Dental Medicine (to give its full, official name). We have "Boot Camp" from 9-12 and 1-3, then biochemistry from 3-5. Don't ask what "boot camp" is; all I know is that it's basically an introduction to dentistry. Biochemistry is our main class for this quarter, but I don't think it's going to be much of a problem. I feel like my biochem class at IPFW prepared me fairly well, despite what seemed like excessive memorization of structures and very boring lectures.

About the quarter thing: our school technically runs on semesters (I think), but classes seem to be blocked into quarters. I like this idea. For example, first quarter biochem is the big class, while second quarter human anatomy will take up most of our time. If they were blocked by semester, we'd probably be faced with two huge, difficult finals at about the same time, not to mention all the tests for the smaller classes. While more intense, the quarter system allows us to focus more. We'll see if classes are set up like this for the next 2 years or if it's just this semester.

One more day

2008-08-12T08:24:00.004-06:00

Only one day left until things get started. Last night, I got together with about 5 other incoming students for a beer and some chat. Everyone seems laid back enough that the next 4 years should be a lot of fun (in addition to the hard work). I think the University of Colorado did a good job of picking people with a variety of interests.

I've posted some new files on my site, Colorado Dental Student: in addition to the Fall schedule, I've also put up a budget template. The numbers are not my numbers, but the loan amounts roughly match what someone would receive attending U. of Colorado Dental School and taking the maximum amount. Check it out in "The File Cabinet."

I also took a test ride into school yesterday to time a route I plotted on from Google Earth. There's this great cycling/walking path near our apartment that I can take for more than half of my trip. It is perfect, allowing me to cut out the major traffic areas and get into school in about 25 min. I also have a great view of the mountains on the way home! Here it is if you're curious.

Financial Budgeting for Dental School

2008-08-08T16:38:00.004-06:00

Though some people are able to pay for dental school on their own, I think a big chunk of us rely on loans of some sort to see us through the four years of school. And, if you go to an out-of-state or private school, loans are often even more important. I am an out-of-state student at the University of Colorado Dental School, and I've decided to make my budget available to all who might be interested. You can see how much I receive in loans, how we allocate our funds, and how much we spend each month (in the grey-shaded rows). This might give some of you an better idea what you are getting into, or maybe just a good budget template to copy and use! (Note: I fixed the link to the correct file. Sorry if you were not able to access it before).

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pH3LWDDNfOoVceUMowQmHMg&hl=en

Camping Defined

2008-08-06T08:20:00.004-06:00

We had a great time camping up at Rainbow Lakes near Ward, CO. The hike was great and the perfect length for Masashi, the tent held up in some pretty strong afternoon rain, and Ritsuko and Masashi stayed nice and warm overnight. The thing we realized, though, was that after all the time spent to prepare, setup, and tear-down camp, we would have been better off just driving home and coming back the next day. There seems to be no reason to go camping out of a car for only one night when you live less than 2 hours away from some of the most beautiful hiking in the United States.

So, I think our camping adventures will be put on hold until we can contemplate some serious backcountry hiking and camping. For us, camping will be simply a necessary overnight stop on a multiday hiking expedition. While playing with a fire and listening to the sounds of night is fun, I don't think that's what camping is all about here in Colorado.

Anyway, Rainbow Lakes was a lot of fun, and the next day we did the quick driving tour of Rocky Mountain National Park. It was crowded and raining some, so we just drove up Fall River Road and back down the main road (to the east). Beautiful, but crowded, I think we'll have to come back a little later in the season for some short hikes before too much snow comes.

Camping: Take 2

2008-08-02T21:36:00.004-06:00

We are off tomorrow for a bit more of mountain camping. It will be a two day, one night affair, with the first night spent at Rainbow Lakes campground in the Indian Peaks Wilderness Area west of Bolder. We'll hopefully do a little hiking, some 4-wheel driving on some of the forest roads, and try spending the night in our new tent. In this one, all the windows zip up, there is a entrance canopy, and it's tall enough to stand up in.

The second day we will tour around Rocky Mountain National Park, which is just less than an hour north of Rainbow Lakes. Should be fun.

Guanella Pass 1, Andrews Family 0

2008-08-01T22:20:00.008-06:00

Yesterday, July 31st, we took a trip up to Guanella Pass for a couple days of high country camping at one of the Guanella Pass Campground. We got there at about 9am, found a beautiful campsite that overlooked the valley and opened up to the mountains on the east side of the pass. After getting set up, eating some lunch and roasting a few marshmallows (for Masa), we took the CR-V up a nearby Jeep trail for about a mile to the head of a short hiking trail. The trail lead to Silver Dollar Lake, which we didn't make it to, but the 3 mile round trip hike took us to some of the most beautiful scenery any of us had ever seen. Masashi and Ritsuko seem to the have the easiest time of the three of us, as altitude sickness was starting to kick my butt as we went up above the treeline. It was worth it, though, as you can see in the pictures. Masa did a great job, too, hiking up some pretty steep switchbacks all by himself.

On the way back we went up to the summit of Guanella Pass. Masa was sleeping and my altitude headache was really kicking into full gear, so we decided to come back early Friday.

Back at the campsite, the fun really began. First, my altitude sickness lead to me throwing-up my lunch and being out of commission for about 3 hours. After recovering, I got a nice fire going and we all played around the campsite until going to bed around 9:30. Little did we suspect, but we were all crawling into our sleeping bags just to freeze ourselves into leaving the campground for home at 3AM. Ugh, I should have known better than to try to use a tent that had open mesh on two sides (covered only by the rain tarp). Great ventilation, but we might as well have been sleeping outside under the 45 degree sky. It was too much, we left the site and forfeited a day's fee, but got a nice look at the night sky from the top of Guanella Pass and some fresh donuts at a gas station in Georgetown.

All in all, it was a beautiful hike and excellent learning experience. We'll be back, Guanella Pass, next week with some new gear.

iPod touch gets hi-res

2008-07-30T17:09:00.002-06:00

I like my iPod touch. I'm sure everyone does. I'm also sure that anyone living in Colorado that has an iPod touch or iPhone was disappointed to find out that they had to be online to use maps for hiking or camping (via Google Maps). Since you will probably not find a wifi hotspot in the middle of the mountain wilderness, this kind of sucks. I did find a way, though, with a little internet research.
The program is for Mac (sorry PC users, though I think there is a way you can do this) and is called Filemark Maker. If you have some high-res picture or pdf's you want to view on your iPod without the iPod downgrading the resolution to illegibility, do this: have your files you want to view ready, download Filemark Maker, drag your file onto the Filemark Maker application (just as you downloaded it), save the url it gives you to your bookmarks in Safari (it opens automatically when you drag the file on, have your iPod connect and make sure the box for "Sync Safari Bookmarks" is check under the INFO tab of your iPod menu in iTunes, and sync! Voila, you can now see these files in their full glory from your Safari browser on your iPod/iPhone.

Update July 27th, 2008

2008-07-27T21:08:00.002-06:00

I am happy to say that we are pretty much at home here in Colorado. We have a good feel for the surrounding stores, things are all settled in the apartment, and we have been having a good time. Yesterday, we went over to a friend's house I haven't seen in about 3 years. A friend of mine from the JET Programme in Japan, Glenn, lives in the Denver area, so our families got together at his place for some great Korean-style barbeque and a relaxing Saturday afternoon-evening in the backyard. We all had a lot of fun and they made so much great food. I'm sure I'll make some good friends when school starts, but it always feels good to come to a new place and have some friends waiting.

We have loaded up on lots of new, fun little tech-toys in the past two weeks. I am writting this blog from my new 13" Macbook (required for school) over the wireless network setup in our apartment. Love the Mac, and not just because it looks cool. It's fast (2.4 Mhz dual-core), the keyboard is tight and crisp, and the screen looks great. My only complaint is that it's a little warm on my lap, but I've never really used a laptop before.
We also got a free iPod touch (8GB) and a free HP Printer/Scanner with the computer through Apple Rebates (the checks for which I received about 4 days after I filed them online!!). The iPod touch is awesome; Ritsuko and I both love being able to just sit on the coach and browse the internet (over the wifi network in our apartment), check email, or whatever.
One more toy we got was this great GE Skype Phone from Walmart. It's a cordless phone that you can use as both a normal phone (with your landline) and as a Skype phone (via a USB cable that plugs into your computer). The quality is as good as any cellphone, it's easy to select your Skype contacts on the phone's screen, and it even has a jack for a headset for those long conversations. I definitely recommend it (just follow the link above; there's an older model that looks similar but isn't as good, so watch out).

We seemed to have landed in a pretty convenient area of town. Just a block away is one of the best schools in the state (Cherry Creek Challenge School), a Korean supermarket called "Har Mart" which is just as big as any normal supermarket but carries Korean and Japanese food. There's also the Whole Foods store not too far away, Walmarts, Home Depots, etc. all within a couple of miles, and easy access to the highways. I can't imagine a better place to be for only $800 a month.

About the Cherry Creek Challenge School: it's just around the block and is a magnet school for K-8th grades. We are in the district, the this school requires applications and and interview/assessment. They have certain standards expect of the students, including the kindergarteners, so we have to get on Masashi's ABC's and 123's with him! He's actually doing well with all that: he plays this game on the internet and does great with the alphabet and pronuncing the letters and sounds they make.

Next week we are off to Yellowstone for a little camping, and the week after that I start dental school! Hope the money lasts until I get the student loan infusion!

In Denver

2008-07-23T07:17:00.005-06:00

We arrived in Denver on July 16th after a fun-filled adventure across 1200 miles of middle America. Ritsuko and I moved everything into the apartment (with Masashi's help, of course), and just finished yesterday the last of our cleaning. The apartment is nice, but not without some minor problems (one of which is having not been cleaned very well). We put in new blinds and steamcleaned all of the carpet, so everything is nearly perfect. We wish the apartment had windows on opposite walls (to let the air move straight through), but it seems that most apartments around here are built in blocks of four and only have windows on adjacent walls. All in all, though, it's really nice, the pool is wonderful, and the location is very convenient.

Dental school doesn't start for another month, so we have had plenty of time to explore. There is a great Wholefoods store not to far away, and Ritsuko is simply in love with it. We drove up to Mt. Evans the other day, which was awesome, and today we're going to try lunch at a nearby Vietnamese restaurant. Here are some pictures on Mt. Evans at the top and near Summit Lake.

The Big Move

2008-07-10T08:07:00.006-06:00

I've planned out our route, complete with stopping points, to our new home in Colorado.
Check it out here.
At over 1200 miles, it's going to be a pretty exciting trip!
Oh, and this trip will be a two and a half day thing. We will stop at a hotel in both Missouri and Kansas.

Dental School Application and Enrollment Statistics: 2006

2008-07-09T12:16:00.004-06:00

This is chapter 3 out of the 2007 "ADEA Official Guide to Dental Schools" entitled Deciding Where to Apply is both informative and interesting. It includes gender, racial, and ethnicity data about each school (when supplied) as well as average DAT and GPA scores, minimum prerequisites, and from which state/province/territory the enrolled at each school came from.

Here is a list of all the 2007 "ADEA Official Guide to Dental Schools" chapters I could find:

Introduction
Chapter 2: Applying to Dental School (mirror)
Chapter 3: Deciding Where to Apply (mirror)
Chapter 4: Financing Your Dental Eduction

If you can find links for any other chapters, please let me know. I just searched for these in Google, as the ADEA doesn't seem to have any clear links on there page.

As ADEA will wipe out these links when the 2009 book comes out, the files with statistics in them have been archived for posterity with the "mirror" links above.

For all you pre-dents and dental students alike, happy data browsing!

Japan's Miltary: Lessons for America

2008-07-09T05:43:00.004-06:00

Last night, Ritsuko and I watched a great program on PBS about Japan's military forces. The show, called "Japan's About-Face," look and the history of the Japanese military and Japan's modern issues in balancing it's pacifist constitution and desire for security. This program was very well done and very interested, definitely recommended for anyone interested in Asian and/or Japanese politics.

It was interesting to see this show about Japan's Self-Defense Force, or Jieitai in Japanese, considering I lived on the island that is home to many of the Jieitai forces. Despite living in Hokkaido and even having a student who was a jieitai sharpshooter, I really knew very little about Japan's military. As the PBS program points out, the Jieitai does a really good job of keeping a low profile. I never saw a uniform the whole time I was in Sapporo, and only a few times when I was in Asahikawa. Of course I had met some people in the Jieitai, and I think they were just as proud to be serving their country as any American military person, but if they didn't say anything you would never have any idea that these guys were trained soldiers! It was a very different experience from what we in American experience with our military. No parades, no aggrandizing, no Semper Fi license plates; just men and women quietly devoted to protecting their country.

I believe that being in the military is just like any other job, just potential more dangerous. Every thinking, productive, non-criminal man, woman, and child is doing something to make our country a better place, not just the men and women in uniform. No one in our present voluntary military can compare their service to those people conscripted by the government in years past. No one is selflessly dying for their country (no one should); every single military man and woman chose to enter the armed forces and is paid and given benifits for their service. It is a job, plan and simple. It is dangerous, but so are many other jobs. It protects our country, but so do many other jobs (think of all the computer geeks making big bucks in Silicon Valley: the big taxes they and all all other successful American businesses pay make all those Humvees and Blackhawks possible). If we could step back and stop idolizing our military and culture of aggression, maybe we could think more clearly about the military choices we make throughout the world. Despite it's past and somewhat uncertain future, I think we should be learning from the Japanese Jieitai, not the other way around.

Obamacans

2008-07-07T09:47:00.003-06:00

This article in the San Francisco Chronicle basically sums up all the reasons why I will most likely vote for Obama in the fall: the Republican Party is a meaningless stump for social conservatives and needs to die, Obama can do no more harm fiscally to the United States than the Republicans have (will probably do much less, actually), and his respect for individual rights will do this country a lot of good. So put me on the Obamacan list; hopefully an Obama win will help libertarians take back the Republican party while still moving the country forward with a new, charismatic president.

Holiday Week

2008-07-07T07:33:00.003-06:00

Last week (June 30-July 4) was a "shutdown" week for our plant, so I had plenty of time to hang out with the family and start getting ready for the big move. Let's see, what happened...
June 27th: Masashi spent the night at Grandma's for the first time. They went to see "Wall-E" and went out to eat at a local Japanese restaurant. Masa had a great time and Ritsuko and I were able to have a nice, quiet dinner together. I later went over to my friend's place for a some drinks.
June 28th: Ritsuko's last day at the Japanese school. Masa went with Grandma up to my parents' lake place. I went down to Cincinnati for a last get-together with some friends. Great time.
July 1st: Nomikai (drinking party) with friends from the Japanese school. Our boss, Tamura-san, treated us (Ritsuko, myself, other co-workers) to great beer and food at J.K. O'Donnel's in downtown Fort Wayne. I really wish we could have stayed out longer, but I could only leave Masa with my sister for so long (she did not have the week off work).
July 2nd: My parents took Risuko and I out for dinner. We were going to go to Cork and Cleaver, but due to a power outage we went to Club Soda instead. I'm sure Cork and Cleaver would have been good, but Club Soda was wonderful. The food was excellent, and we had a great time.
July 4th: We went to a friend's place for a barbecue. They have two kids about Masa's age, so he was able to play while we made food and talked. It was a lot of fun. After we got home around 6, I went over to a couple of different friends' places for a bit, then Masashi and I went to watch the fireworks. We walked from our apartment to some nearby soccer fields where we had a PERFECT view of all the fireworks. We were so close that we could even hear the radio announcer and orchestra music, but there was practically no one there as the road into the soccer fields is closed and locked at night. The fireworks were the best I've ever seen in Fort Wayne, too.
July 5th: Instead of using our gift certificates to go out to eat at some fancy restaurant (we are sick of eating out), Ritsuko, Masashi, and I took a road trip up to Detroit to shop for new furniture at IKEA. We got a new, smaller computer desk, a new dining set, some chairs, shelves, and a bunch of little things (glasses, cooking stuff, etc.). Masa was fine despite spending the whole day in either the car or IKEA, and Ritsuko and I were able to get most of the stuff we will need for our new place in Denver.
July 6th: We all went up to my parents' lake place for a day of swimming and barbecue. It was a beautiful day and we all had a great time.
All the rest of the time over this week was spent packing. We've got most of our stuff pack; just need to put the dishes, the remaining clothing, and a bunch of little stuff away. Got our hotels booked, too: we're going to go all the way to Columbia, MO on the first day and then Colby, KS the second. This will put us in Denver around noon on the 16th.

Now, I'm back at work looking at a digital pile of stuff I don't feel like doing. Only one more week...

Applying to Dental School Part II: The Application Process

2008-06-26T05:53:00.004-06:00

There are many different approaches to the application process, but all of them involve using AADSAS (Associated American Dental Schools Application Service). This is a service provided by the ADEA and mandated by all dental schools for applications to submit almost all of the information required by the schools. Coursework, grades, letters of recommendation, personal statement...everything EXCEPT your DAT scores (which are sent by the test-giving company).

Now, I'm not going to talk about the content of the application; it's pretty cut-and-dry. There are really only three other things to discuss: school selection, timing, supplemental material, and interviews.

1. School Selection:
This could be the most difficult decision you make during your application process or it could be the easiest. There are two ways to approach it: select so many schools that you're statistical guaranteed to get an interview, or carefully select your schools based on your abilities and the statistics of previously accepted students. Obviously, I feel option 2 is the way to go, as the bit of thought you put in at the beginning should pay off in saved time and money later. Of course, if you feel you're a long shot, then applying to as many schools as possible makes perfect sense. If you can, though, try to narrow down your choices early (do you really need that safety school?) to the schools you feel you could get into and, if you have the luxury to discriminate, might actually want to attend if accepted. This leads me to my next point...

2. Timing:
The phrase "apply early" is the mantra of the pre-dental community, and while I didn't follow this advice, it is a good idea to get your application in as soon as possible. When "as soon as possible" is exactly, though, is up for debate. I don't believe someone who submits in May will have an advantage over someone who has submitted in June, for example. But, someone who submits in July will have an advantage over the person submitting in October, all else being equal. Someone scans your application, makes sure it meets certain criteria, looks for other things that make it unusual (in both good and bad ways), and hopefully put it in the digital "consider for interview" pile. A committee then comes together, looks at that pile, and sends out invitations. The only way I really see how applying early can help you before December 1st (the date the first acceptance letters are allowed to go out from any dental school) is against equally competitive applicants.
Since most people will have their applications in during the summer, though, most of this is probably irrelevant. What might be a good idea, though, is to wait until you've taken the DAT (if you're taking it in the summer) before submitting. As timing isn't so important then, you can wait and make an informed decision about where or if you will apply. I took the DAT on July 11th and submitted my application July 13th (of course, everything was ready to go well before July 11th). Knowing my DAT scores enabled me to really know where I had a good chance of getting in at, allowing me to eliminate the bottom safety schools and no-chance-in-hell schools from my list. It might ultimately just be a money/time saver, but I'm glad I did it this way.

3. Interviews:
This is the most enjoyable part of the whole application process. Everything is in; now you get to go check out a bunch of cool schools and tell them in person why they should accept you. If you really want to go to a particular dental school, this shouldn't be too difficult. That's not to say that you won't get a bit nervous, or that every school will accept you just because you want to go there. I'm just saying that the best way to approach the interviews is as if you are making the choice, not them. You want to be confident (not cocky), interested (not pandering), and relaxed (not lazy). You were invited for an interview because they want to accept you, and now they just need to see if you would really be a good fit for their school or not (or if you really want to go).

There's really not much to it. If you're realistically at this point, all of the hard stuff is behind you. Good luck!

Paulie's web page business

2008-06-25T08:56:00.007-06:00

What better way to pass the time than to make web pages and actually get paid for it? I have never seriously pursued web page design work, but when given the offer to make a page I've always taken it up. I really only have two pages I've made, one of which will be completed by next week. They're OK. Both are clean and easy to read, not a lot of junk moving around of blinking pictures. The Fort Wayne Scottish Pipes and Drums page is OK (I noticed a couple of problems just recently), but the Quality Tool Company, Inc. page will be much better looking. Compared to the web pages of some other area tool and die companies, mine is definitely one of the cleanest and most functional. I'm surprised at how much junk that no one will ever look at or use most of these companies put on their pages.

Anyway, since I'm stuck on a computer all day anyway, it's nice to have the opportunity to make a little extra cash while at the same time learning some new skills. Every little bit will help us as we move and get settled for dental school in Denver.

My mom came over yesterday just to talk and hang out. She brought us a beautiful framed piece of art. It's a paper work of this Chinese character that's done in such a way that the symbol looks like it has been pressed into a chunk of stone. It means love or real love or very very strong love in Japanese (though it might have different uses in Chinese or Korean, I don't know). It's very simple and looks nice on your wall.

Masashi's 4th Birthday Party

2008-06-23T20:16:00.000-06:00

Our son, Masashi, had his 4th birthday yesterday, and we celebrated by throwing him a big birthday party. With about 10 kids and just as many adults, it got pretty interesting in our little 900 sqft apartment, but everything came off wonderfully. Everyone loved the Baikin-man (a Japanese cartoon character) ice cream cake that Ritsuko made, the helium balloons were a hit with all the kids, and there were plenty of toys for everyone to play with. Masashi was pretty good with all the new presents; he was a little stingy about sharing a few of his new toys, but overall he was able to play with all of his friends in a pretty peaceful manner. All of the kids, with one exception, played really well. If you want to see pictures, Ritsuko should have some up on her blog soon.

Applying to Dental School Part I: Advice for taking the DAT

2008-06-23T12:44:00.008-06:00

I have a slight feeling of deja vu doing this, but with this blog posting I hope to provide some advice to all of the future dental students (pre-dents) out there. I'll make this a two parter, with Part I focusing on the DAT and Part II on the actual process of applying.

Just a little background for the few non-dental readers: DAT stands for "Dental Admission Test" and consists of several sections. The student is tested on his or her knowledge of fundamental college-level biology, inorganic chemistry and organic chemistry, as well as reading comprehension (English), quantitative reasoning (pre-calculus level math), and perceptual ability (testing one's ability to perceive and manipulate complex shapes in one's head). Scores are created based on national percentiles (you did better than 85.7% of all other test takers, for example) and converted into a 30 point system. Each section gets a score, and there are also averages used of those scores for the dental admissions process.

On to the advice. I feel obligated to warn the reader this is only my opinion, and is in no way being suggested as the best way for all. You ultimately must decide what is best given your unique circumstances.

1. When to take the test:
I took the test as soon as I had most of the courses that covered the material on the test complete. I took Bio 1 & 2, Gen Chem. 1 & 2, and Organic 1 all within a year, and then took the DAT half-way through Organic 2. I also had Anatomy and Physiology, which might have helped a little. Piling all the prereqs together like that and taking the DAT soon after they were finished left everything fresh in my mind. You don't really need stuff like Anatomy, Physiology, Genetics, Microbiology, or Biochemistry as everything on the DAT is stuff you should have covered in the basic classes. If you study for the DAT well, the basic classes will be enough. Do your basic prereqs in marathon fashion(including o-chem 2) and get that DAT done ASAP! The further you get from your basic science classes, the more difficult you DAT studying becomes (assuming you're doing some kind of liberal arts degree, mixing in science and other class).

2. Good materials:
I used the Kaplan DAT book (the one you can buy are book stores, not their course material), and old Barron's book, and any practice test I could get my hands on (Topscore software, Kaplan book tests, ADA DAT site). Don't stop here, though! Keep your old bio, gen chem and o-chem books handy (if they were any good), and maybe consider getting Schaum's Bio Outlines and Campbell's "Biology" to aid you in your task. Wikipedia is a great resource for specific information you get stuff on.

3. How to study

A. In general:
Just read, DO PRACTICE PROBLEMS IN YOUR TEXTBOOKS, and take lots of practice tests over and over again, even if you memorize the tests. I would take a practice test to evaluate where I stood, study what I missed, and then take the section tests again and again (with the science section I forced myself to answer the question in my head and NOT just select it from the multiple choice) until I got each section perfect (at least for the science sections). I would then start the next week with a new practice test. Repeat for about 5-6 weeks.

B. Biology:
Read Campbell's (skipping over stuff when it gets too detailed) and do the practice problems at the back of the book. I swear some of those questions appeared almost verbatim on the DAT. Us Schaum's to review when you're just sitting around somewhere (bus, airport, toilet).

C. General Chemistry:
Read your textbook, compare with what Kaplan says you need to know (which is basically everything in your textbook), and do as many of the easier practice problems in your book as you can. Do acid-base stuff, do redox problems, know orbitals, don't skip math problems just because people say DAT chemistry is mainly "conceptual." If you can do an acid-base problem without having to flip back to an example or check the formula, then you understand acid-base. Easy as that.

D. Organic Chemistry:
Again, use your textbook. If your cheap like me, you bought an old, used textbook from 10 years ago because it was cheap and came with a study guide for the chapter problems. Do some of the problems, the easier ones, but don't get too hung up on it. Flashcards are the way forward, my friend, specifically the one's created by our Buckeye friends at OSU. Do the flashcards on the computer, copy them onto index cards, do them sitting on your patio as you sip a cold one in the beautiful summer heat, just do them! Draw the molecules, be one with them. Know how to do IR and NMR, too. There are some great resources on the Internet to help you study that stuff.

E. Reading Comprehension:
Sorry, I didn't really study for this, so all I can say is do more than just a couple of practice problems. Just because English is one of your first languages does not mean you will cruise through this. Maybe study LSAT books, or just do lots of RC section tests.

F. Quantitative Analysis:
This section seems to get a lot of people. You really need to be able to look at the problem (mostly story problems, often long) and just KNOW what you need to do. You might run out of time. The math is easy, doing it in the time allotted might not be. Review all the stuff covered in Kaplan and do a lot of practice problems. Don't get wrapped up with anything requiring too much long division or doing logarithms in your head: the DAT is testing for general knowledge, not your ability to memorize pi to 100 digits and then use it in a calculation. Do memorize general formulas, though, and know your fundamental trig. Good luck.

G. PAT:
So, how does one really study for this section? Counting cubes, comparing angles, punching holes; there is no real secret way to getting this stuff. First thing, you need to be methodical. We do things the way we practice, so figure out the best way to tackle each top of problem and practice it that way EVERY time. Example: figure out one way to count cubes (I made a chart like in the picture and then always counted right to left, bottom to top, front to back, in that order. I could use this chart twice). Somethings, like angles, you just need to practice a lot and develop an "eye" for the little boogers. Practicing the same questions over and over again is fine. I even made my own angles in AutoCAD (the angles in many of the books/programs are not hard enough). If you have problems with keyhole, pick up a book on engineering drawing and teach yourself not just how to read top-front-back models, but also how to DRAW them based on the orthographic projections.

There you have it, my opinion on how to prepare for the Dental Admission Test. Armed with this fountain of wisdom and your pile of books, go, study, most importantly, my friend, stay relaxed! Oh, and check the comments for this post; there's already some good advice from visitors posted there, too!

Possible Summer Trip

2008-06-20T08:03:00.004-06:00

Obviously, we are already taking a HUGE summer trip just moving out to Colorado. That's more like a summer marathon, though; we'd like to take a fun, relaxing trip and immerse ourselves in the beauty of the Rocky Mountains. One possible route that I just worked out would take us to Rocky Mountain NP, Grand Teton NP, Yellowstone NP, Craters of the Moon NM, and Dinosaur NM all in one nice big circle. At 1600 miles, though, it will be quite a haul, even for a 2-week trip. Google Maps estimates 31 hours of travel time, so that's only about 2.5 hours of travel per day. We'll have to talk about it more, of course.

Sorry LGBT, looks like Russian Jews had the Rainbow Flag First!

2008-06-19T11:13:00.005-06:00

I was reading the wikipedia article on the USSR today when I ran across an interesting little tidbit: Russian Jews where granted land in far eastern Russia to pursue cultural autonomy, the region being called the Jewish Autonomous Oblast. It was some crumby land (maybe Stalin was just trying to move the Jews as far away as possible), but it was land, and the area (now only 2% Jewish) maintains a strong Jewish/Yiddish culture to this day.
The most interesting thing, though, is the little "country's" flag: white with a rainbow stripe. I guess the LGBT community's flag is a little different, but it's still funny. Oh my, will the rainbow ever be used for PBS book shows, children's toys, or Jewish autonomous regions again?

Hat Power

2008-06-19T07:38:00.008-06:00

Recently I bought one of those grandpa-hats from a store here in Fort Wayne. It was only $7, nice, cool (temperature-wise) weave, and my wife said it looked good on me. It's a solid brown cap, made by Dockers (not the one in the picture here), and maybe a bit big from my small noggin, but I absolutely love the thing!

The thing that's really interesting about such a young, strapping lad like myself (hahaha) wearing a hat like this: I feel like I older people don't automatically just assume I'm some young punk and actually treat me with more respect. Now, before you get on my tail about imposing stereotypes and observations and the unscientific method by which I came to this conclusion, I know. Maybe wearing the hat makes me more polite, maybe it's just my expectations making me see what was always there, maybe I'm mental. It's just a thought, and true or not I enjoy wearing this hat.

Colorado Dental Student Web page

2008-06-18T06:52:00.006-06:00

Yesterday, Ritsuko and I were looking through Google's applications for something that would help her make a simple web site. We discovered a newer app, called Google Sites, that seemed perfect for the task. I actually liked it so much, I thought I'd make a resource page for pre-dents and new dental students going/wanting to go to University of Colorado School of Dentistry. It's simple, it's clean, and best of all it's informative. No more searching through all the different web pages of the University of Colorado system or messing with the School of Dentistry's site for what you need, just go here to see the Colorado Dental Student site!

Dental Decks and what to do with myself until we move.

2008-06-17T12:34:00.005-06:00

My right eyes hurts from staring at this computer all day (actually, it's probably from the lighting of the Soviet-style office I work in), but I finally feel like writing my blog after a few days of laziness.
So, what have I been doing lately? Working, playing Lego Star Wars on Xbox 360 with Masashi, shopping with Ritsuko (mostly for Masashi's upcoming birthday party), using lots of parentheses in everything I write, playing Neverwinter Nights occasionally, with my D&D addicted best friend, perusing SDN, not sleeping enough, playing outside with Masa, playing a little golf (I suck and should probably stick to just tossing a frisbee around), slowly getting ready to move, trying to keep busy at work (I really haven't had much work recently, but I can't just go take a nap on the lawn), etc.
As far as dental school goes, I got my hands on some 2006-2007 Dental Decks for NBDE Part I, which we take at Colorado after the first year. I haven't really been studying at work, just browsing through them, but I'm surprised at how much material was covered in my 2007-08 coursework. I had Biochemistry, Virology, and Medical Microbiology. These were all graduate level courses and fairly detailed. After looking over these dental decks, it seems that about 5/8 of the material is stuff I should remember from these classes plus my anatomy/physiology classes from 06-07. 1/8 is more detailed anatomy/physiology stuff, and the final 1/4 is dental anatomy and occlusion material. 5/8 of the material for Part I of the boards as review? Sounds too good to be true, so it probably isn't. I imagine there is a lot more detail involved, and it will most likely end up being more like relearning than simply recalling to memory.

I'm reading "We the Living" by Ayn R and currently. I've read this and most of her other "novels" several times before, and have come to the conclusion that no matter how much I agree with her ideas, her writing just isn't that great. I understand what she's doing, presenting her Objectivism philosophy using the whitest of whites and the blackest of blacks to make sure you get it, but the unrealistic contrast is a bit too much and takes away from the stories. "We the Living" might be the best, but even Kira (the stories main character) comes across as artificial sometimes. Despite these complaints, the vision she evokes of early the early Soviet Union in "We the Living" is powerful and scary. There are so many things that have happened and are happening still today that are "so hard to believe," and what happened to Russia can seem like just another tragedy on a long list of tragedies. So, it's good to remind oneself of such horrors once in awhile, and "We the Living" is a good one for horrors of Communism and dictatorships of any sort (whether it be a overly strong leader or the Dictatorship of the Proletariat). Live free or die! Let's all move to Wyoming (which doesn't have a dental school, but is close to Colorado).

The lesser of two evils

2008-06-12T11:41:00.006-06:00

What does an American have to do to get a decent president these days? We've endured 8 years of Bush, and an Obama-McCain match-up is the best we can do? Now, I analyzed both of these guys awhile back and came to the conclusion that I could vote for either one. Unfortunately, both candidates have some serious weak points. Obama talks too much like a kind of Robin Hood on fiscal matters: raise taxes on the wealthy so we can afford our poor. Why can't we just level the playing field and stop trying to "build" everything (build hope, dreams, a new society, etc.); things will be built by those with the will to build if we can just leave them alone for a bit. McCain, on the other hand, will have a difficult time getting anything done without the help of the social conservatives in his party and seems to susceptible to the culture of loopholes, earmarks, subsidies, and other shady practices that help dig America deeper into a hole. Again, just leave people alone.
I bet for every major problem we have in America today you can find at least 10 pieces of major legislation that have actually compounded the problems they were targeted to resolve. Wonder how we got to where we are today with gasoline? Don't blame it all on China: take a look at this article to get an idea of how it's really all just "you reap what you sow." And now with new technologies coming out, everyone wants to make new subsidies (such as the huge ones for ethanol)! Short term relief that will lead to nothing but long term pain similar to what we've been struggling with regarding oil for years.
Obama and McCain, maybe they should just be on a ticket together. Neither one is going to make anything easier for the man or woman who simply wishes to live and let live while striving for his or her best.

Life at 30

2008-06-12T11:35:00.001-06:00

On June 10th, I became 30 years old. Nothing changed.

The Move: Truck Rental

2008-06-09T04:57:00.004-06:00

Last night I put in our reservation for a Penske truck and car dolly. There were a number of factors that led me to just rent a truck instead of putting a hitch on the CR-V and renting a trailer for the 1150 mile journey to Colorado. The biggest factor was the fairly recent press U-Haul has received about accidents involving U-haul trailers and their renting practices. Another concern was the lack of air conditioning in the Ford Taurus, which would really suck for Ritsuko. Finally, renting a truck alieviates the need to leave anything behind: we will take all of our stuff and just set up house the way it is now. We'll probably by a new bed (we've been meaning to for awhile, but that's it.
So, we'll get our Penske truck and dolly on July 13th, pack, and head out early the next morning. We were able to get everything for less than $1200 using the 10% discount for reserving online and a %12 AAA discount (joining AAA cost $54). Some big costs come from gasoline, too (surprise, surprise): 1150 miles /8 mpg x $4/gallon = $575! So, a conservative estimate of the costs of our move to Colorado:
$1200 - rental
$575 - truck gas
$200 - CR-V gas
$160 - 2 nights hotel
$60 - food
$55 - AAA membership
__________________
$2250 - total

Yeah, it's a pretty expensive move, but what are you going to do? It's still cheaper than our move back from Japan, and we had to sell or leave a bunch of our stuff then. This cost is also less than the price of the laptop we have to buy for dental school. So, even though it's more expensive than the scary U-haul trailer method, renting the full 16' truck is probably the best way for such a long move.

Beautiful Morning

2008-06-04T06:52:00.004-06:00

I'm in a weird mood today; I think it has to do with how I woke up. It rained some last night, but we left the windows open, so I woke up this morning to the sound of a million birds and the fresh smell of trees and grass. It was barely light, but I looked outside to see if it was still raining, and everything was covered in droplets of water and a dense fog hung over the ground. This is when I thought that I might actually miss some things about Indiana. Ritsuko and Masashi were still sleeping soundly, of course, and for some reason the fog, the dim light, and the smell of cool, wet vegetation made them look all the more peaceful.
This beautiful morning experience has put me in the mood to contemplate beautiful, peaceful things. Usually I'm too tired to appreciate the serenity of early morning, but today got me for some reason. I think early morning is a beautiful time. I can remember early summer mornings riding my bike through narrow streets and alleys in Sapporo (Japan) before anyone was out. The city was always at its most beautiful then.
It's interesting to picture the world and creations of mankind without mankind in the picture. When I was a junior in high school, a highway was being built around the east side of Fort Wayne (I-469). I found a way to drive my car out onto the highway after it had been completed but before it was open for use, so one day my girlfriend and I drove out onto this highway and sat around in the middle of the road for awhile, enjoying the nice weather. Have you ever sat in the middle of a four-lane highway? It was as if we were the only two people left in the world. Seeing the created without any sign of the creator, it made even that new highway feel ancient and sacred. (The above picture is by Steve Hanson)

Financial Aid Reward

2008-06-03T05:09:00.004-06:00

I received my reward letter from the University of Colorado financial aid office. It's kind of odd to see such large numbers on a piece of paper that has your name on it! For the first year (Fall, Spring, Summer 1/2), my total reward came out to about $85k. That's a lot of money, I'm just glad that I won't have to take out any private loans (all money from Pell Grant, Staffords, and Grad Plus; thank you fellow citizens and foreign residents paying taxes) to cover living expenses as this massive amount of debt seems to cover it all. My wife told me that in Japan you are only able to receive education loans to cover your education (i.e. not living expenses), so I feel grateful to be getting this much at relatively low interest rates.

All that I need to do now is sign some stuff and I'm done! Everything is consolidated this year as U. of Colorado has signed on to the "school as lender" program. I'm sure you've heard about a lot banks not wanting to take risks with student loans. In order to avoid any future problems, U. of Colorado will receive loan money directly from the government and act as the sole lender for all the students (at least for the Health Campus students). Sounds fine to me.

Now that this is done there are only a few more things to do and about 6 weeks left until we move!

Recent Activities, May 2008

2008-05-29T07:54:00.004-06:00

Lots of stuff going on, but everything is still fairly relaxed compared to what it was during the school year. Let's see...
1. Ritsuko, Masashi, and I went to see "Walking with Dinosaurs" last night. Very cool.
2. Masa's birthday party is in the works. Looks like we'll be trying to jam 13 adults and 9 kids into our little 900 square feet apartment. Hopefully the weather will be nice...
3. Immunizations are coming along. Had my Tetanus and HBV #1 last Friday. One arm is still severely bruised. Still need: TB skin test (Redimed), HBV #2 & 3, and one more MMR (come on, Mom and Dad! I should have had these finished a long time ago)!
*FYI for Allen County (IN) residents going into health care: Department of Health will do your necessary immunizations for free.
4. Got our apartment lined up yesterday. We have a 2 bed, 2 bath apartment in Huntington Ridge (ratings). Looks like a nice place, with washer/dryer, and only 5 miles from school (=40min bike ride). We'll probably do 6 month or a year, see if we like it or not, and maybe look for a cheaper place if we don't think it is worth $825/month.
5. 25 actual work days remaining!!

My new XBOX 360!

2008-05-28T08:30:00.005-06:00

Yes, I finally took the plunge into the world of high-definition gaming. $200 for a system (with 20GB hard drive), two wireless controllers, headset, and 4 or 5 games (including Halo 3) was too good to pass up! Masashi and I play this WWII airplane fighter game together, and he is quite good! Too bad the game doesn't give the option to play the Japanese side in the Pacific theater (though you can use Japanese planes). I've been playing Halo 3 every night, then, and look forward to getting GTA4 sometime in the future. I don't want to pay $60 for a new game, though, so I just might wait. I might get Elder Scrolls: Oblivion soon, though; I need a role-playing game to satisfy the dungeons and dragons geek in me! The HD thing is great (we do have an HD TV), and sometimes I just like to look around at the scenery in the games. I'm sure this time-waster will get stowed away come July and the beginning of dental school, but for now it sure beats watching crumby TV shows in the evening.

Russian Music

2008-05-16T05:20:00.009-06:00

I decided to listen to music instead of the news this morning on my way to work, and this is what I found. Menuet from Petite Suite is so beautiful; the melody suggests such simple yet colorful elegance and the harmonies are accessible while still suggesting what Debussy will later move on to. The melody actually made me think this was a Russian piece at first, as it is not unlike many of the wonderful melodies found in pieces by the Russian "Mighty Handful or other Russian composers.

Russian music is a whole other story, and I have a greater love of Russian music (Russian "classical" music, that is) than any other. Listening to pieces by Rimsky-Korsakov, Balakirev, Scriabin, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, ...the list can go on and on...I feel like I am being given a glimpse of another world. The Mighty Five take me back to Tsarist Russian and I can only wondering at its beauty and grandeur (I am not idealizing the past, only seeing the beautiful parts of it that have been captured in Russian music of the time). Prokofiev and Shostakovich, on the other hand, take me to a Soviet Russia struggling with its new identity while still holding tight to its past and traditions. Maybe what I see in Russia's music is not what she was but rather what she could have been...

Mutants on a Flat Earth

2008-05-15T10:23:00.009-06:00

We had some of our friends over yesterday afternoon, and someone (not me) mentioned the idea the Japanese living in America their whole life look less "Japanese" due to mutations that would cause changes in physical structure. Then, one of my friends began talking about how his high school teacher told them that mutations can arise (like mutant genes) due to non-environmental factors that lead to traits that could then be passed on to their kids. Everyone except for me seemed to think that this was perfectly logical, all nodded their heads at the wisdom of my friend's most likely mis-quoted high school teacher.

I couldn't take the nonsense and just had to set everyone straight. I usually try to avoid confrontations with this particular friend as he usually talks with the kind of authority that might mislead you into thinking he is an authority on whatever subject he is telling you about. I had to disagree, and point to the fact the Darwin's theory of evolution pretty firmly dismissed the idea of Lamarkian evolution over 100 years ago. Thus begins the fun:

1. "But, Darwin's theory is just that, a theory."
-I explain that a "theory" in science is not the same the common definition of a theory as nothing more than a hypothesis.

2. Something to the extent of "But how do we really know?"
-I reply that Darwin's theory was the backbone of modern biology and that future research should begin upon this cornerstone as it is the best explanation we have.

3. Intent on defending himself: "I believe it is important to keep an open mind. How would Columbus even have discovered that the world was round if he hadn't gone against popular thought and maintained an open mind?"
-I failed to explain that Columbus did not discover that the world was round, and that few people from the 3rd century B.C.E actually believed in a flat earth. I did explain, though, where his logic was going. I said Darwin's theory of evolution is to Lamarckian evolution as a spherical earth is to a round earth. We would never go back to testing hypotheses based on a flat-earth model, so why would we go back to Lamarckian evolution as a model for biological studies?

4. "But we can see the earth is a sphere from space!"
-This was the point that I realized logical discussion was probably not going to get anywhere with my friend, and I was glad to be relieved from our argument by another friend calling on the phone. I did explain, though, that Darwin's theory can been seen and has been seen. It is a common misconception that evolution takes too long to ever observe, but we can see it! I tried to convey to him that the importance of Darwin's theory to biology and was every bit as significant, if not more so, as proof that the world wasn't flat.

Even with all this, he countered with his "proof" of seeing "so many" Americans raised in Japan who looked different than Americans not raised in Japan. Maybe this is about where the phone rang, as I was thinking a biology lesson was enough without having to give them some basic statistics tutoring as well!!! I did not bring up the fact that my friend had only spent several weeks in Japan and I had lived there for nearly four years. Someone mentioned that changes could come about due to lifestyle, which I agreed with but reminded everyone that these changes COULD NOT be passed on to children. Everyone seemed skeptical of this for some reason still. My friend who called saved me from having to discuss the topic anymore. It was some how reassuring talking to him, a doctor, reminding me that not everybody in the world thinks of evolution as some weird theory.

The shocking (though it shouldn't be) thing about this whole messy discussion was that my friend was not arguing based on any religious beliefs. He just had been so bombarded with misconceptions about evolution that, when mixed with his unwavering belief in himself, it made him just as zealous as any religious zealot. I guess I could be described as a zealot, too, a zealous defender of logic and rationalism, but that's besides the point. I think a lot of people choose to disbelieve evolution due to religious reasons, but those people have to be intelligent enough to clearly study and interpret religious texts to come to that conclusion. The rest, both religious and non-religious, who are anti-evolution probably do not arrive at any conclusion based on their own reasoning, but rather lack the ability to do anything more than simply repeat the myths and fallacies they hear around them.

The argument that God created humans as they are now is common and proceeds out of its own logic; I can accept that people would believe that. I did not think, though, that I'd live see the day when some atheist was so defensive of his pride that he'd stoop to defending Lamarckian evolution just to keep from being wrong! Not even the idea of me stretching my arms every day and then fathering children with longer arms seemed to phase this guy! Come on, people!!

Do you have questions about evolution? Check this page out!

Farming Subidies

2008-05-15T06:52:00.008-06:00

An unfortunate bill just passed through the House yesterday and "is expected to pass the Senate today:" it's a farming subsidy bill that will pay a majority of its money out to wealthy, monster farms while hindering small farmer and environmental efforts. I have nothing against large-scale farming operations, but I do not think that taxpayer money should be paid to farms currently seeing record profits. I like the way this article by Carolyn Lochhead in the San Francisco Chronicle puts it: "A farm couple will be allowed to earn up to $2.5 million a year before government payments are cut off under new rules that lawmakers called a major reform. An urban couple applying for food stamps is cut off at $17,808 in income and may own only one car." Most of these subsidies go to the largest operations, and the tax burden will be enormous if crop prices drop.

Tilling virgin prairie, giving disaster money to "bail out farmers plowing marginal land." is this what the Democratic Party means by "CHANGE?" I voted for Barack Obama in the recent primary here in Indiana, but bills like this really give me pause. Are we really voting for change, or are we just voting for a different way to waste money? Granted, the amount spent on these subsidies will pale in comparison to the amount currently being spent on the war in Iraq, but I thought the Democrats (and the Republicans who joined them) were above pandering to the electorate. Obama has a great message and an equally exciting personality, but are policies like this farm bill really what America needs? I don't know, honestly. I guess I need to do more research...

"I don't care"

2008-05-14T07:34:00.004-06:00

Robert Pirsig's "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance," which I am currently reading, that made me thing about this: why do we so often say "I don't care" in response to choices presented to us? For example, my wife often asks me "So, what would you like to eat tonight?" and so often I will reply with a "Hmm, I don't really care. Anything is good." It's obvious that I really do care and that this type of reply is just a way of shrugging off the responsibility of making a decision that you feel is either unimportant, that someone else is just as qualified to decide, or both. I wonder what using this phrase does to you and those you using it on, though? Is it really that harmless?

One negative effect of this phrase would be to indicate to the person to whom you are responding that their question is not worth your time and is unimportant. If it was unimportant, though, would the person have asked it? While you might not feel the question is important, the fact that someone else does feel it is important enough to ask should make you stop and think. The fact that this person sought your advice on the matter should also be considered. The fact is you potentially say two things when you say "I don't care," both detrimental to your relationship with others and yourself: 1. The question is unimportant, and thus the person asking is of lower intelligence than yourself for not being able to see that this question was unimportant when you could, and 2. you (the questioned) are unimportant to this particular decision making process, and thus to the person asking (who thought the decision was important enough to ask about).

We not only belittle the questioner but also ourselves, the questioned. The ultimate result would be, I believe, a slightly wider gap between our self and the other person. Growing distance between two people can mostly likely give rise to other communication gaps and lead to other problems.

I've decided that I will try not to use the term "I don't care." Anyone who seeks my advice deserves some answer, even if it just narrows down the choices or presents only a slightly less vague idea of your feelings about the matter. We owe a thoughtful response to both our family and friends as well as ourselves.

Spring Semester 2008 is complete. Now what?

2008-05-12T20:09:00.004-06:00

It is officially over. After a semester of classes that were usually very interesting, sometimes boring, sometimes stressful, and rarely much worry grade-wise, the ultimate sign that it is done, the posting of the grades, has been completed. My grades haven't concerned me this semester (which was a nice feeling), so I won't concern you with them, either. Rest assured, though, that I did "well" enough to retain my spot at Colorado.

The question of "what to do now?" was put to me hard today. Masashi smashed the tip of his finger (not too badly) in the door, which took a lot of his normal energy out of him and left him asleep on the couch just before dinner. Of course, Ritsuko and I had a nice dinner together and then watched some TV. But, as she began doing the things she normally does in the evening, I was left wondering what I would do. Normally, I'd get Masa ready for bed and then study or just go to bed myself. I was kind of a strange feeling not to have anything pressing to do, but I enjoyed the time by picking up "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" where I had left it at lunch while listening to some of my own compositions.

The two (my music and Robert Pirsig's book) seemed to go so well together. I put down the book halfway through the final piece and found myself suddenly enveloped in the music. I wasn't until several minutes after the last note had faded away that I realized there was no longer any music coming through the headphones, that my mind was simply continuing the impression of sound. Why? Maybe to maintain that state of floating that I was in. I need to write some more music sometime, for me.

I'm thankful I can just write music for myself and not have to churn out watered down versions of myself for junior high school bands just so I can put food on the table. I remember some of my composition lessons where most of the professors would offer advise to help me along with what they thought I was trying to achieve. Other times, though, they would try to push me down path, to impose their sound upon my music. I rarely allowed this to continue, and if I did the music was promptly corrected back to my original ideals as soon as the recital was over and the grades out.

Of course, I would probably write more music if I were to have continued down the road of a professional composer. Yet, we all know that quantity does not equal quality. Funny we should come to this term, "quality," as that is exactly where I left off with Pirsig: Phaedrus's search for what exactly "quality" is. The works of my professors were rarely "quality" pieces, yet I feel that most of mine are. Is this simply my ego, or is there something about creating for no one else other than yourself that allows you to pursue what is, in your view, of the purest quality and highest value? I guess I leave that question up in the air for now as I'm not sure of the answer.

Anyway, tomorrow is a long day: work, then CPR class (required by University of Colorado). Time for sleep.

Indiana Votes for Obama!!

2008-05-06T18:16:00.005-06:00

Haha. Well, at least I did! Voting was effortless and quick, a real treat. We'll just have to wait and see if Obama was able to keep Hillary's lead to a minimum. Either way, it still looks like the battle is far from over.

Sorry, Senator Clinton, you just can't do it. I'm going to vote for Obama.

2008-05-02T11:03:00.005-06:00

The New York Times has a great little bit of media (on the left side of this page and down a bit, title "Paths to Victory) about what Hillary Clinton needs to get in order to win the nomination. Even if Clinton does as well in the remaining primaries as she did in Pennsylvania, she will still need 70% of the unpledged superdelegates to win. Why is she doing this? I believe both Obama and Clinton are excellent choices, but this all needs to end. There is no way the superdelegates are going to vote so overwhelmingly against the popular vote, so I feel Clinton would do the nation a favor by simply dropping out now. I will do my part by going on Saturday and voting early for Barack Obama. Of course, this doesn't mean I've made up my mind yet about which part I will vote for in the general election, but I have a feeling Obama will be the way to go.

Ritsuko and Masashi Return!

2008-04-29T11:15:00.002-06:00

Ritsuko and Masashi return home last Wednesday, and everything has been great! Ritsuko's lump was nothing more than that: just a small lump of fibrous material in an area of the neck that thyroid cancer has little or no chance of metastatizing, something many people have or will get in their necks. She is doing great, and we are both complete relieved by the good news. Masashi is doing well, too: now that the weather is getting warming, he is outside everyday playing with a couple of his friends from the apartment area. On Saturday, he was outside playing with them for over 4 hours straight, and that was after spending 3 hours at grandma and grandpa's lake place running around!

Ritsuko brought all kinds of goodies back: a humongous rice cooker to prepare the rice in some special way, another pressure cooker (again, it's special somehow, don't really understand yet), and most importantly MY SNOWBOARD! Oh, my beloved snowboard, a simple white board with black bindings, signed by all my snowboarding buddies while I was in Japan. Form-fitted boots, helmet, snowpants, gloves: all there. I'm more excited than ever now to get to Colorado (of course, I'll have to wait until the mountain snows come...)!

But, Colorado must wait. I am still in Indiana for some reason. It must be the two classes I need to finish and my job I can't abandon just yet, though I will truly miss all of the good friends I've made since I came back from Japan in 2006. C'est la vie. Classes will be over soon: two more classes this week, and then two finals next week. I guess I'll have to study for both, but neither medical microbiology or religions of the East should be too difficult. I have this paper to finish up by Thursday, but that's pretty much done; I just need to sprinkle in a few more quotes from the text (Diana Eck's "Encountering God").

My preparation for matriculation into and life during dental school is slowly coming along. I need to get my vaccination information from my old pediatrician and university health center, I'm going to request that information this week. Once I get the vaccines I've had, I'll go to a Redimed or something and get my TB test and have the doctor fill out the necessary form for Colorado. I'm sending out my request for transcripts to Ball State tomorrow, and I'll get IPFW's once the semester is over. Sales of my old stuff are going well: I've sold one video game and about 4 books since listing on Amazon and Half.com about a week ago. Next is the CPR class (which I was too hungover to attend on April 15th even though it was at 5 o'clock in the evening!) on May 13th.

After health forms, CPR, and transcripts, there's just getting an apartment and the actual move to worry about. We've found a nice apartment complex not far from campus, Huntington Ridge, in which we should be able to get a place. Pack our two cars with all our junk, even after cleaning down to the bare necessities, will be the real challenge. I think I'm going to do a test pack of one of the cars, just to get an idea of exactly how much stuff we can take. Should be fun.

Hobbit Movie Update

2008-04-25T06:40:00.004-06:00

If you use Google News, you would have seen this, but I'm so excited I had to post anyway! Release dates for The Hobbit and The Hobbit II movies are speculated to be 2011 and 2012, respectively. The director will be Guillermo del Toro, who will move to New Zealand to work with Peter Jackson and his team.

IPFW Student Death Update: It's a homicide

2008-04-18T14:38:00.003-06:00

Yes, a student was killed in the IPFW student dorms today. The killing continues...

Another IPFW student dies

2008-04-18T12:31:00.011-06:00

IPFW (Indiana Purdue University Fort Wayne) students just received the following email about another student who was found dead:

"We are sorry to inform you that at, 11:41 am on 4-18-2008 a person was found deceased at the IPFW Student Housing Complex. This incident is being investigated by the Fort Wayne Police Department, IPFW Police Department, the Allen County Coroner's office, and the Allen County Prosecutor's office. We have no suspects at this time, we urge you to exercise due caution."

This is the 2nd time this month that an IPFW has died. We got a similar looking email not even two weeks ago:

"A shooting occurred this morning, Sunday, April 6th at 3506 Timberhill Drive. Unfortunately an IPFW student was the victim of the shooting. The victim's name is being withheld. There is no suspect information at this time. The exact cause and manner of death will be determined by the Allen County Coroner's office. This incident is under investigation by the Fort Wayne Police Department, Allen County Prosecutor's Office and the Allen County Coroner's office, with the full cooperation of the IPFW Police Department."

Either death is tragic, but let's hope that this time it isn't another murder. According to the News-Sentinel, though, many people heard the deceased's roommate "come out of her room screaming that her roommate was dead and there was lots of blood." Friday evening classes have also been cancelled at IPFW.

Unfortunately, there is no more information than this. Having worked in a funeral home for over a year, often going on calls (picking up people who had died), I doubt this is a natural death. It is very sad and my thoughts go out to the friends and family of this student.

Indiana-Illinois Earthquake Update

2008-04-18T04:07:00.004-06:00

Yes, just heard it on the news: earthquake centered somewhere near Salem, Illinois, registering about 5 on the Richter Scale. They said it only lasted about 10 seconds, but my window did shake for longer than that (I still swear about a minute). Anyway, some comments on my blog indicated that it really shook things up over in Illinois! Crazy.

Indiana Earthquake

2008-04-18T03:44:00.003-06:00

Wow, we just had an earthquake here in Fort Wayne, Indiana at about 5:40 or so AM. Pretty cool. Based on how long my window was shaking (it shakes easily), it lasted about a minute. Will update later.

China and Communism

2008-04-17T16:24:00.005-06:00

With all the talk of China, Tibet, the Olympics, and Chinese products, I thought I'd check out the ruling body that make all of these things news in the first place: the Chinese Communist Party. I think we tend to talk about things without really seeing or even trying to understand why someone might have a different perspective. The only way to resolve conflicts is through understanding and cooperation. Now, I hardly condone the actions of the Chinese Communist Party and the atrocities it has perpetrated. Yet, by looking at the other side, it helps us (especially us Americans) reflect upon our own society. Here is the constitution of the Communist Party of China: hardly an inspiring masterpiece, but interesting nonetheless. I think there is just as much East Asian culture and way of thought in this document as there is Marxism-Leninism. By the way, it's really long! I've only read the introduction so far.

Turkish Cuisine Party

2008-04-17T11:23:00.010-06:00

This is going back a few weeks, but I really wanted to put this pictures up. We hosted a "Turkish Cuisine" party to celebrate one of our Japanese friends finally getting his green card (after like 7 years or more!). Hiroshi and his family came over early Sunday afternoon and so our kids could play (they have to girls) and our wives (who are very good friends) could start making our Turkish feast! It was Ritsuko's idea, so she looked up all the recipes and prepared all the ingredients. How authentic it all was I will never know (or care), the only thing that mattered was that it was all really good!
Ritsuko and I with our food.

Hiroshi, Yumi, and Ritsuko with the food

Ritsuko and Yumi cooking!

I taught Masashi how to climb into this tree. After I go back inside again to help Ritsuko, one of his friends comes up about 5 minutes later to tell me Masa had climbed all the way to the top! He was actually higher up than when I took this picture!

Some after-dinner video games with Masashi, Maria, and Hanna. Notice the large goose-egg on Masa's head: he hit it on the coffee table earlier spinning around, playing. Poor guy!

Good News!!

2008-04-15T07:58:00.009-06:00

I spoke with my wife this morning: the small lump in her neck is not cancerous and is no different from the types of little lumps in the necks of millions of healthy individuals. What a relief! I must admit, despite the fact that all her January test came back negative for any cancer, I was a little concerned. Thank goodness she just went back to Japan and got this looked at; waiting another month and a half for testing here would have been nerve racking. Amazing, isn't it? Her radiologist (who is working at a public university hospital) was able to fit her in for tests his first day back after the weekend. Whoever says national health care doesn't work or is too slow or makes too many people wait too long obviously has blinders on or something.

Anyway, Ritsuko and Masa can now spend the next week in Japan eating good food, visiting friends, and just having a good time without the worry. Here are some pictures of Masashi that Ritsuko's sister sent.

As for me, I'm crawling around work after a solid night of drinking and <4 hours of sleep. Having a spouse allows one to relegate responsibility and tasks more efficiently (including over oneself), but when they are gone for a bit watch out! I stay up late drinking and playing video games, I eat hot dogs wrapped in tortillas for dinner, I have yet to do laundry or the dishes (Ritsuko left last Wednesday morning), I don't get up in time to make lunch so I just don't eat, etc. I'm sure the self-destructive behavior would fade out over time or not be there if I had something important to do (like I did when I was studying for the DAT last year).

Financial Aid FAX received (finally)!

2008-04-10T09:20:00.006-06:00

There's a big weight off my shoulders. With such a (relatively) late acceptance and little help from Colorado Dental School, I've been working myself up into a little frenzy trying to get the proper papers filed to the proper places.
I'm not sure how it works, but things at Colorado don't seem to work very smoothly with regards to this process. Firstly, the only information sent about financial aid is that you have to go to website X and do it. Well, I guess I can do that. Then, they want you to FAX the forms. OK, but the FAX number on the form is actually incorrect and the aid office phone number doesn't connect to the office you (a future dental student) need to speak with. Thankfully, helpful people connected me to the correct office. Only then did I learn (from very helpful staff) the correct FAX number. Faxed it numerous times, not sure if I was using the work fax correctly or not, but they couldn't seem to tell me if it had gone through or not. Finally, just yesterday when I called to verify if they had received my fax (or the copy I mailed to the dental admissions office), they were able to tell me yes it was just being sent to Bolder (CU main campus) for data entry. Work-flow issues, maybe? So, it goes to Bolder for data entry, then I guess is on the computers and ready for processing by the medical campus people.

What was the point of me filing FAFSA through FAFSA's web site, again? I completed this all before I was even accepted to Colorado, but I have yet to receive any info about financial aid awards. I guess some schools are slower than others about this, but seeing what a big deal loans are you'd think things would move a little more quickly. Maybe I worry too much, but at least it's out of my hands for now.

The next 2 weeks

2008-04-09T11:36:00.004-06:00

Ritsuko and Masashi went to Japan today. Ritsuko has a small lump in her neck, and we both agreed that she should get it checked out ASAP. It would take over a month to just get an ultrasound here in the USA (Ritsuko not being able to get insurance), but this isn't really something to sit back and wait on. As it is probably cheaper to just fly back to Japan and have all the treatments done there than it would be to pay for the tests, etc. necessary out of pocket, back to Japan it is!

It's sad: we can afford insurance, but no one will sell it to her. I get insurance through work, but the 1 year pre-existing condition clause applies. Unlike millions of unfortunate individuals stuck in the good ol' USA, we can travel freely to gain the best health care possible. Thank goodness the rest of the world is civilized enough to see the benefits of national health to their society and culture. America is great and everything, but doesn't all this "we're a love thy neighbor country" just seem like a bunch of BS in light of the fact that America puts very little of it's faith into political practice? Yeah, spend all your time keeping homosexuals from getting married, but seeing that your fellow citizen is actually given access to decent health care? Well, I guess Jesus didn't have health care, so we don't know what he would do and thus can't make up our minds.

Free market economy? Whatever. We wouldn't all be sitting in our cars 2 hours a day while we nibble on McDonald's on our way home from work if our free market economy had not stolen all the wide open lands of North America from the Native American inhabitants. Karma.

Anyway, I guess I'll have a good two weeks to start getting rid of junk before our summer move. I'll probably also spend a good amount of time playing video games as well as plotting my future as a dentist. Post-graduation, let's see: small 2 bedroom house outside of Denver or in Colorado Springs, work a normal 35-40 week at my own office or one I buy from a retired boomer, OK I have to go to a meeting so I'll just stop rambling here.

Google Documents and Dental School Blogs

2008-04-04T08:49:00.003-06:00

I don't have much time to write about anything in particular; I just wanted to take a little break from translating and studying for my Medical Microbiology test.

First thing: Google Documents!! I love it and everyone should use it. It's simple and doesn't have many bells and whistles in which to get caught up. Most importantly, though, is the fact that you never have to worry about transfering from one computer to another (home to school) or not having different versions on different computers. I am definitely going to be moving most of my future work into Google Documents.

Second thing: Dental Student Blog Ring! Technically, it's not a ring as I am just linking to other blogs that have something to do with people in or who will soon be in dental school, but it's a start. There seem to be very few dental student blogs out there (maybe due to heavy workload of school), and I thought it would be nice to connect with other dental school bloggers and in doing so offer a solid resource for those interested in the subject. If you have a nice blog that you regularly update with info about you or your spouses dental school life, let me know!

Broken Windshield

2008-04-01T06:16:00.002-06:00

I learned something new about my vehicle insurance policy over the weekend: it sucks. Sometime last week we heard a rock hit our Honda. Looking at the windshield, we didn't see anything and thus assumed no harm done. Well, this Sunday a foot-long crack appeared on the passengers side, which after carefull examination was discovered to have eminated from a TINY crip at the very top of the windshield (in the area that is blacked out).

Warranty doesn't cover this kind of thing, so I called my insurance company:
"$500 deductible."
"Even for stuff like rocks hitting windshields and deer?"
"Yup, that's what comprehensive covers."

Read the policy guide, people, and avoid this kind of mistake. I definitely should have paid for a lower comprehensive deductible for our new vehicle and maybe lowered coverage on things that are less likely to happen.

To make a long story short, I called to have the windshield replaced. I then found a company on the internet (Geico) that gave slightly better rates than what we had for both of our vehicles. And, since we'll have to change when we move, I thought I'd just go ahead and make the switch today! A little late, but now we have a $50 comprehensive deductible. It's nice to be able to do everything on the internet, too. Denver has an actually Geico office, though, should we ever require face-to-face assistance. Good by Farm Bureau!

Pre-Dental School Update: about 4 months left

2008-03-28T06:42:00.004-06:00

The process of getting ready for dental school is slowly moving along. My list of things to do:

1. DEPOSIT & FINANCIAL AID: I've submitted everything, but the admissions lady has been out this week, so I don't know if they've received my deposit/FAFSA stuff yet. I was surprised that University of Colorado wants you to send some financial aid form and tax forms to them as well as file FAFSA online. So, I faxed it in, as requested on the form, but not sure if I did the fax number correctly at work. I also mailed the form it, so hopefully they get it one way or another. I'm kind of surprised how uninformative they've been about such an important process; maybe they don't start getting on it until your deposit has been registered.

2. HOUSING: Well, we're not going to bother with trying to buy a home for now (as we discussed doing when I thought I'd be attending Indiana University). We have managed to find a decent looking apartment complex that is relatively inexpensive and somewhat close to school (5 miles from Fitzsimmons Campus). It seems to get good reviews online, so we'll just do everything over the phone. A little risky, but it should be OK. And, if that complex doesn't have any openings come June or whenever, there are a couple of other places that seem good, too. We will just start with a 6 month lease so that if it sucks, we can just take a weekend and move.

3. MOVING: I've been pondering the idea of putting a hitch on our CR-V so we can pull one of those little U-Haul trailers. Maybe $125 for the hitch, $330 for the trailer; should be cheaper than having to buy a new couch/desk/etc. and then we won't have to leave expensive stuff just sitting in our car when we stop. Still need to actually go look at the trailers; they are just never as big as the dimensions online make them sound.

4. FUN: Very important. I am not going to work straight up until I start dental school. Ritsuko and I have been talking recently about taking a trip to South America (Peru, specifically) or the Caribbean. She has enough miles to take here as far as Peru (but not to Japan or Europe), and tickets for Masashi and I wouldn't bee too expensive going south for the summer. Peru sounds cool if it'd just be my wife and I. But, with little Masa, maybe a more stationary vacation would be better. That trip will probably be late May (work can eat it).
We will also definitely be doing some camping and traveling to various national parks once we've moved out to Denver. Ritsuko's never been to the Rocky Mountains, so it should be exciting!

5. PASSING THE TIME: That's such an unfortunate phrase, but "LIVING" kind of pulls the attention away from the focus of this post, the fact that I'll be going to dental school in about four months. Anyway, I'll just keep studying for my Medical Microbiology and Eastern Religions classes, hanging out with friends, spending a lot of time with Ritsuko and Masashi just playing and hanging out, reading whatever I can get my hands on, and churning out the translations at work (when I'm not messing around on Student Doctor Network or writing this blog). I'm actually going down to Cincinnati this weekend (with my wife's blessing) to hang with some old high school friends. Pizza, beer, video games; despite being future dentists, radiologists, insurance agents, or unemployed living in France for his wife's job while he gets a "culture" stipend from her company to just have fun everyday, we can all still enjoy the camaraderie and simple pleasures that life offers.

Clinton & Obama Health Care Plans: Any difference?

2008-03-27T07:04:00.010-06:00

Here it is, what you've all been waiting for! After endless minutes of research, I will now explain to you the differences between Hillary Clinton's health care plan and Barack Obama's health care plan.

1. Offer same kind of coverage available to members of Congress: Clinton & Obama
2. Guarantee no denial of coverage: Clinton & Obama
3. Pledge to bring down costs of premiums: Clinton & Obama
4. Streamline system for acquiring coverage and seeking care: Clinton & Obama
5. Leave the public free to buy either public or private coverage: Clinton & Obama
6. Reform insurance rules and end precondition limitations: Clinton & Obama
7. Expect employers to help contribute to health care costs (either directly through premiums or indirectly by paying to the government): Clinton & Obama
8. Government will assist individuals unable to avoid insurance: Clinton & Obama
9. Small business will receive a tax credit to help offset insurance burden: Clinton & Obama
10. Modernize health care system: Clinton & Obama, though Obama gives more details
11. Mandatory coverage: Clinton-everyone, Obama-only children
12. Strengthen Medicaid and CHIP: Clinton & Obama
13. Help keep drug costs down: Clinton & Obama
14. Allow state plans to work and experiment within national plan: Obama
15. Tax credit for retirees: Clinton

There you go. It's obvious that Hillary and Barack were both reading the same book; with so few differences between their health care plans, this does not seem like it should be a big factor in decided between the two candidates. There are a couple of differences (well, really only one), so let's take a look at them.

10. Modernize health care system: While both agree "modernization" needs to be done, Obama goes into more details. Unfortunately, many of these details amount to nothing more than fluff. To be fair, though, Clinton has links to more detailed explanations of here plans on the side of the health care issue page. I know all politicians "fluff" their issue statements, but I just want to give an example: "Obama will support implementation of programs and encourage team care that will improve coordination and integration of care of those with chronic conditions." OK, so what exactly does that mean? What are these "programs?" How will you "encourage team care," whatever that is?
I think you understand that I'm not a big fan of fluff padding (which Obama seems to have more of on his issues page).

11. Mandatory coverage: Obama does not go as far as Clinton in mandating that everyone be covered under some insurance plan. He limits the requirement to children (I assume under the age of 18). I can see how this issue might cause a little arguing: if everyone isn't required to buy insurance, then less people are paying into the system and less money would be available to help those who cannot afford anything. From personal experience, I know that Japanese works the way Clinton proposes, and many health professional schools also mandate insurance coverage for there students. Mandated coverage is no big shocker to me, but that might not be true for other Americans. There are plenty of healthy young lads and lasses that have no interest in forking over money every month for something that they are statistically unlikely to need. While I don't see this being a really big sticking point in the primaries, undoubtedly national health care will come up in the national election this fall.

14. Allow state plans to work and experiment within national plan: Obama is the only one who talks about this issue, though I cannot see Clinton having much desire to upset the federalist history of our beautiful union too much.

15. Tax credit for retirees: Clinton is the only candidate who addressed this issue (if it even is an issue). I'll be honest--I don't really know what this is about. You can read it and figure it out for yourself, but I doubt Obama would say much different if asked about this. I assume he doesn't mention it one his issues page because it's really not that big of a deal.

Now, there were other little things both candidates brought up, but it is fairly clear that Clinton and Obama share basically the same ideas for dealing with national health care.

Gibson versus THE WORLD (at least the capitalist part)

2008-03-24T09:37:00.004-06:00

Gibson is suing everybody and their mom over the supposed Rock Band/Guitar Hero patent infringement. Activision, MTV, Electronic Arts, Target, Walmart, etc. Of course, Gibson's patent is for something almost completely different (as you can see in this article), but who can blame them for trying to get a chunk of the change!

Did someone whack me with a shillelaugh?

2008-03-18T07:40:00.005-06:00

Ugh. Post-St. Patrick's Day is much less fun and exciting than St. Patrick's day was, especially when you wake up two hours late for work. Went down with a good friend of mine after our Medical Microbiology class and managed to get fairly ólta. Lots of Guinness, of course, and quite a bit of another beer from southern Indiana that was like a Belgian ale or something. Pretty good. No food, no water, just beer. We managed to get a table, which was a nice bonus, and gathered a nice sized crowd of new and old friends. Good times.

Now, the challenge I am currently faced with is staying awake at work. I have absolutely nothing to do (again) as both Japanese engineers seem to be out. My eyes seem to be wandering in under my eyelids, so reading news all day might be a bit much. I could disappear to my car for the next couple of hours, but I'm actually a very ethical employee; if I'm paid to sit here and wait for some Japanese emails to come, then I'll sit here. I guess I could sit here and play video games or something while I wait...

John McCain: an Analysis of the Issues

2008-03-17T06:34:00.005-06:00

I analyzed Obama and Huckabee (who is out), so I guess it's time for look at another candidate. I will probably not look at Hillary Clinton due to 1. I don't think she'll get the nomination and 2. there is really little difference between her stance and Obama's stance on most issues.

John McCain, the Republican contender for the 2008 Presidential Elections: McCain holds some appeal to me for is conservative fiscal policies and lack of Bible-thumping rhetoric. Let's learn a little more about the man who will try to become president under the shadow of George W. Bush by analyzing each of the issues outlined on his web page.

Economic Stimulus Plan: cut corporate taxes and encourage entrepreneurial activity via various deductions. Sounds good, especially in light of the sinking value of the American dollar. The only way I feel we can begin to turn the economy around is by encouraging investment and new businesses in America (not by giving every John and Jane a rebate check for a few hundred bucks or something).

Tax Cut Plan: McCain gets into a lot of different issues with this section. I agree with the lower tax ideas that he proposes. He focuses again on keeping tax rates low and introducing cuts that encourage the innovative sectors of society (research and development, no Internet tax, lower investment taxes, repeal Alternative Minimum Tax to help middle class families). I feel that when these parts of society improve, it brings everyone up with them. I also agree with McCain on the need for lower trade barriers and spurning alternative energy initiatives WITHOUT the use of subsidies. McCain again puts his faith in the "technological prowess of American industry and science." I couldn't agree more.

Spending, Taxes, & Economy: Nothing new here, just tried and true stump statements about lower taxes, ending pork barrel spending, increasing transparency, yada yada yada. He outlines some of these things in other sections, like taxes and open markets, but I just don't see (and he doesn't provide any clue as to) how McCain is going to increase transparency and end pork barrel spending and earmarks. I believe earmarks are an especially harmful part of our legislative process, allowing lobbyist and interest groups more power than they should have. Unfortunately, McCain doesn't provide any real answers as to how he will address this, and I doubt any nominee's ability to put such legislation through an opposition Congress. If he wants to decrease government spending, this is where he needs to start. I think the earmark issue deserves more attention.

Straight Talk on Health System Reform: I'll give you the straight talk: McCain offers almost NOTHING to this discussion. It's the old stuff about stimulating competition, increased flexibility, give a nice tax credit: wonderful. So what will that actually do? He makes some sense talking about personal responsibility (good luck with that one!) and reforming tort laws "to eliminate frivolous lawsuits" (a necessity), but really fails to offer any new ideas. I personally believe the only way to free the medical system from the grips of insurance companies is nationalizing health care.
God, I wrestling with this idea of forcing other people to pay for health care of their fellow citizens, but I just don't see any other way. Maybe we should subsidize doctors so they can work without insurance companies and offer lower rates (not really any different than nationalizing health care, but it sounds better). Maybe if America wasn't a nation of fat, pizza-stuffing slobs this issue would be a little easier to address. Who really wants to support a national health system when the average American insists on eating him or herself into an early grave, but what's the alternative? Do I sound intolerant? Maybe we need a little more peer-pressure to help curb our unhealthy habits. Maybe we need a "fat-tax" on sugary, fatty foods (but no, that will only hurt the low-income folks who insist on raising their kids on Pepsi and frozen pizza but still want free access to world-class heart transplants). That's it, a FAT TAX, with the tax going to a national health plan. Makes sense, right?
Anyway, health care is a mess and McCain doesn't really have any new ideas.

Strict Constructionist Philosophy: while I agree with the general idea that we should not be hasty to change laws and should base legal decisions upon pre-established laws as much as possible, BUT saying that judges should not challenge the legislative branch on issues is like saying that there should be no system of checks and balances. What I see here is McCain trying to placate social conservatives who worry that he is too moderate on certain issues. This kind of wording also always McCain to hold position with independents. For a libertarian like myself, nothing to really fear here.

Human Dignity and Life: how about applying that "strict constructionist philosophy" to Roe vs. Wade? What about local legislatures trying to usurp the legal rules of the federal courts? John McCain talks about ending abortion: maybe it does with his free trade policy by encouraging abortion tourism. I will never agree with McCain's policy here and feel that the logic is fundamentally flawed and at odds with other policies that seek to retain personal freedoms. People are free to make money but not have a gay wedding or abortions? As long as people are free to make money, they WILL be opening gay and WILL have abortions. McCain, you talk about encouraging innovation yet seek to marginalize some of the more innovative members of our society with this socially backwards policy.
He does leave himself some outs with independents, though, by maintaining that these social policies should be decided at the local level. Fine, how about the most local level, the personal level? Man-woman family is the "foundation of Western Civilization and civil society?" I thought the ancient Greeks were the founders of Western civilization, and they "did not conceive of sexual orientation as a social identifier." Why don't we take a few lessons on social policies from our ancient Greek friends? How about just outlawing governments involvement at any level in social unions? The fact that these are even issues is simply ridiculous. People worry about their gay neighbors while they credit card themselves into the poor house and eat themselves to death. Maybe we should reconsider who the demos are for our democracy. What would rule by the ignorant be, anideocracy, "rule by those without a clue."

Lobbying and Ethics Reforms: Yes, yes, yes!! Please! Do this, and this stuff about trying to keep homosexuals from getting married and other dumb stuff won't even get floor time in Congress because the special interest groups will no longer be able to buy it!

Strategy for Victory in Iraq: Honestly, there will never be true "victory" in Iraq because we are fighting a cultural war; cultures do no surrender, they either continue as is, change, or cease to exist. So, unless we're planning on a genocide, we had better think harder about how to improve relations in the Middle East. McCain has ideas on improving the local situation in Iraq that will surely work temporarily, but he seems to be missing the big, long-term picture. And, this "Win the Homefront" BS is more scaremongering: I thought we'd leave that behind with Bush age of ignorance. Guess not...

Border Security & Immigration Reform: I think McCain has all of the right ideas about this issue, I just hope he doesn't cave-in too much to the less-clearly, short-term thinking members of the Republican party.

Veterans' Affairs: Of course, of course, of course. Being against any of this stuff would be like saying you're the kind of guy who drowns baby puppies just because you're dog had too many. Does this really need mention?

Education: I really know very little about the "No Child Left Behind" act other than that I'm not going to rely on it to see that my child gets an education. I agree, though, that parents should be able to choose to some degree where their kids go to school. Why not just privatize the whole thing?

National Security: bigger, better, badder! Oh yeah! Americans love big guns. Smarter defense spending sounds good if it means spending on a defensive army rather than legions of Imperial Stormtroopers over-price Death Stars. What we need is effective diplomacy (which McCain eludes to) and an image that inspires reverence rather than loathing, not more military personnel.

Stewards of Our Nation's Rich Natural Heritage: great ideas, little substance. I especially dislike the low-blow and complete backwards jab at Democrats with the statement "ignoring the problem reflects a 'liberal live for today' attitude unworthy of our great country." Well, living for today might be a liberal idea, but protecting our environment is definitely not a conservative one. I like McCain for a lot of reasons, but completely stupid comments such as these make me doubt his ability to effectively work with Democrats and independents.

2nd Amendment Rights: Of course! How are you going to make a bigger army by spending less? Let everyone import their own assault weapons and high capacity ammunition clips! I do agree that you cannot hold "the innocent responsible for the acts of the criminal," but the same logic carried to the extreme holds that nuclear and biological weapons should be made available to any American who wishes to buy them. Why can't you buy weapons-grade plutonium? Because you might hurt someone with it. How about some consistency on this issue.

America's Space Program: While I fully support NASA, I do not see the need for manned missions to the moon or Mars. I'm sure many at NASA and other centers of scientific research would agree with me.

Wow, McCain. You're carrying a lot of garbage with all those good ideas of yours. I guess that's part of politics. Focus on the fiscal policies and you might have my vote.

Denver, here we come!

2008-03-14T05:15:00.006-06:00

We are moving to Denver!! I got the call from the Colorado School of Dentistry last night at about 6 PM and am still a little dumbfounded. Honestly, I wasn't expecting to get a rejection, but now that I'm in I have to retrain all of my thoughts from "if I get in" to "when we move." I am ecstatic!(A picture of where the dental school is)

Link to events in and around Denver

Moving from Indiana to Colorado: Better Pack Light!

2008-03-13T12:04:00.006-06:00

Wow. Just look at that. That is how much it would cost to rent a U-Haul truck big enough to move our stuff from Fort Wayne, Indiana to Denver, Colorado. Throw in another $150 for a car-pulling trailer and then gas on the <10 style="font-style: italic;">gogatsu ningyo Masa got from his grandparents in Japan. I guess we can just ship something like that if we run out of room in the cars. We should be able to make this work, it's just that stupid couch.

ADA DAT Frequency Tables for 2007

2008-03-13T09:41:00.007-06:00

Since this is my blog I feel like I can brag a little bit: based on the frequency tables for testers who took the Dental Admission Test in 2007, I scored in the 99.9 percentile for Natural Sciences (Biology, Inorganic Chemistry, Organic Chemistry), 99.2 percentile for Academic Average (natural sciences + reading comprehension + quantitative reasoning), and 94.1 percentile for the perceptual ability portion of the test! Not too shabby, huh.

So, out of the 8897 people who took the test in 2007, only 26 people got a higher academic average than mine (46 had the same score) and only NINE (9) people had a higher natural sciences score (only 5 had the same score)!! That's even better than I thought (I was basing my estimate on 2006 frequency tables). Let this serve as a motivation to all of you NON-SCIENCE MAJORS or NON-TRADITIONAL students or those of you who cannot be bothered to put down the big bucks for expensive books or training classes. There's no reason you can't do this, too!

OK, I'm done patting myself on the back, but I just had to get that out there.

Frequency tables put up by the American Dental Association for 2007
(alternative download)
*the password for both is ada

my stats here

The State of the American Economy

2008-03-13T05:30:00.003-06:00

I am hardly a financial expert, but it doesn't take a degree from Wharton's to see where the US economy is going. With ballooning war-expenses, even greater social security obligations, and all of the problems with lender bankruptcies, the diversion of foreign investments from the US market to others will only continue. As Scott Ainsbury, a portfolio manager at FX Concepts Inc. in New York, said to Bloomberg News "Why put the money in the U.S. where stocks are sliding and the dollar is sliding? It's just a double whammy."

At the end of the day, I believe this is all a good thing. Weakening of the US market and strengthening of others will help to bring more balance to the international arena. The US has a disproportionate amount of power in the world today and has unfortunately lacked the foresight to use that power judiciously and effectively. I welcome a world in which the European Union, Japan, and even China play a greater, more balancing role.

The American Dollar: Going Down?

2008-03-12T12:37:00.009-06:00

That's right, your greenbacks grow more and more worthless everyday. I hope you didn't cash in all those Euro from your trip to France five years ago; it's gonna cost you about 40 cents more for every Euro you want for your next vacation to Europe. How about Japan? Well, let's just say I should have left my money there when I moved back to the States. Can't get a cheap soda with Canadian quarters anymore, either (not that you've been able to do that for a long time, anyway). The loonie is now worth MORE than our good ol' George Washingtons. Here are some graphs showing how many of currency X you can get with your hard-earned buck. The time period, coincidentally, approximately coincides with the term of our glorious commander-in-chief, George W. Bush. For those of you not good with charts and graphs, the fact that these are all going DOWN from left to right means that your money is worth less abroad.

Euro/US $

Canadian $/US $

Yen/US $

Notice a trend?
*dollar dropped vs. the yen even more and is now $1/100 yen (3/13/2008)

Just DIE already, Cable!

2008-03-11T05:17:00.006-06:00

We're all familiar with YouTube and its collection of daredevils, stop animation, singing animals, and poor-quality captures of '80's cartoons.

Joost is another option: download the software and stream OK quality video from one of their various channels, complete with little commercial snippets. Selection seems to be improving all the time, and there are some good or interesting shows available. They have a lot of cool music videos from all over the world, and have recently added old Star Treks to the schedule. The way they do the commercials is perfect: short and sweet.

Vuze (this link goes to the Wikipedia article as the Vuze site was down at the time I wrote this blog), formerly known as the bittorrent client Azureus (which remains its primary function, actually), offers shows or segments in downloadable format, but many of the good shows have a fee. They were asking almost $6 for an hour-long PBS Nova episode! I also noticed something last night about Vuze: if you play the downloaded content through their viewer, it will sometimes put full 30sec. commercials in, even if the file is only 2min long!! I downloaded a funny set of short animations called Neko Rahmen, but the file format was something I could only play in their viewer (a Matroska, *.mkv, file. There's other software to play or convert it to *.avi, but I didn't feel like messing with it). The first nine 2.5min clips played with no commercials, but for the last 4 I got a 30sec Battlestar Galactica commercial before each one! So, I don't know about the Vuze channels, but its function as a bittorrent client is excellent.

Now there's a new site coming out, and it's already getting a lot of press time. Hulu opens to the U.S. public on March 12th and offers a range of popular, well-known TV shows. The sample of The Simpsons they offer on their homepage looks good, and it sounds like the commercial format should be fine. I'm looking forward to trying this out tomorrow!

The alternatives to cable/dish/regular TV seem to be expanding everyday. Now I just need to get my MacBook for dental school (if/when I get into Colorado) so I can stream these shows onto the big TV in the living room...

Prescription Drugs in Your Water

2008-03-10T05:09:00.005-06:00

Is anyone really shocked by this story about trace amounts of prescription drugs in the water supplies of cities around America (and the world)? I never though about it, honestly, but it makes sense that water filtration techniques wouldn't be designed to essentially metabolize the ever-growing array of pharmaceuticals that we flush down with each visit to the little boys' or girls' room.

Now that the subject has risen to a level of awareness that it gets front page Google News, it looks like more attention might be given to something that could potentially be a problem. It is also a silent testament to the drugged-up world that we live in, but the overuse of prescription medicine is another story.

Unfortunately, with all of the attention being given the story today, it was a little difficult to find some actual professional journal articles on the issue. Maybe I didn't search hard enough, but all I really came up with is the name of one of the researchers/professors, Dr. Francesco Pomati, doing a lot of work in this area. He's an Italian dude with a pretty pimp-looking 'stache and works in a university department that also seems to focus on astrobiology. Cool.

Yummy Yummy Dolphin Meat!

2008-03-07T11:34:00.007-07:00

I just came across this article in the New York Times about mercury-tainted whale and dolphin meat and I said "What!! I didn't know you could buy dolphin meat in Japan! I was camping with some friends once just about an hour away from this town where they sell dolphin and didn't even go to try some myself!" Just kidding, I don't know if I could bring myself to eat dolphin, though I have tried whale (which was uninteresting and not worth the $1 paid for the small piece of sushi). It's kind of up there with eating dogs or cats, yuck. Here's a picture I found on a little site called Japan Focus. The meat on the right is Mink whale and on the left is Dolphin (red meat).

Dentist? Physician? Which would you prefer to become?

2008-03-07T08:46:00.006-07:00

Obviously I'm biased towards becoming a dentist, but my choice was made with solid reasoning. Physicians are just getting the short end of the stick in the USA these days, as this somewhat old yet still relevant article explains. Both professions help people improve their health, both professions are paid well, but being a family practice physician almost seems like a nightmare compared to dentistry! This article might present a rather extreme contrast of the two professions (I doubt most dentists, even in pairs, are pulling in half a million a year!! I also hope most family practice physicians are as miserable as this guy...). I especially liked the part in this article where a dentists offers to pay his surgeon more for the surgery on his Achilles tendon because he didn't think insurance was paying the guy enough!!

It's really sad the way insurance companies are destroying medical care in this country, which I guess brings us into the larger discussion of what to do about it. Doctors that don't take insurance (like many dentists)? Nationalized health care? Is health a "right" or a privilege? I won't even go into here...

Japanese for Beginners

2008-03-06T08:11:00.010-07:00

I was thinking that, being a Japanese-English translator and all, I might share some of my knowledge and resources with those of you interested in learning a little Japanese. I've tried to come up with a couple of simple, useful phrases or terms that you should be able to memorize quite quickly. Hopefully you'll find this useful!

Kenbansenen: Meibomianitis. Of course, we all know what this is, here's how you might use it in Japanese:

Friend: Me wa doshita no? Kimochi warui!! (What's up with your eye? Ewe, gross!!)
You: Eh, kore? Tada no kenbansenen da yo. (What, this? It's just a bit of meibomianitis.)

Chuuseishibakudan: Neutron bomb. Who doesn't want to know how to talk about these fun little things.

Friend on phone: Kyo nani shiteru no? (So, what are you up to today?)
You: Ore no chuuseishibakudan o yamiichi de utte miyo ka na to omotteru. Doh omo? (I'm thinking I might try to sell my neutron bomb on the black market. What do you think?)
Friend: Iin ja nai? (Sounds good.)

Gijihankyoshingoseiseikairo: Pseudo echo signal generator circuit. Every vocal information exchange system should have one!

Spouse: Kora! Nande denwa bunkai shiteru no? (Hey! Why are you taking apart the phone?)
You: Omae urusai, na! Gijihankyoshingoseiseikairo o suetsuketteru zo. Pai ya nanka tsukureba...(You sure are annoying! I'm installing a pseudo echo signal generator circuit. Why don't you go make a pie or something...)

Useful, huh? Go try it with your Japanese friend today!

University of Colorado School of Dental Medicine: Post-interview

2008-02-19T09:28:00.012-07:00

The February 9th interview went great; I loved the school and will definitely be attending if accepted. I could recommend any of the four schools at which I interviewed, but Colorado seems to be the best fit for me. Beautiful school, very friendly faculty and students, and an awesome location (the Denver area that is, not necessarily the area immediately surrounding the school). On top of all that, there's something about how difficult it is for out-of-state, non-WICHE students to get into Colorado (less than 10% of their seats are for out-of-state like me) that makes it even more appealing. Honestly, though, the main reason we (my wife and I) want to move to Colorado is the location. It's such a wonderful place, and we'd like to stay there.

So, maybe your asking "how much more will it cost?" Despite the additional $90,000 (yes, there are four zeros following that nine) of debt I will be taking on to attend this school (as opposed to Indiana, which would be in-state tuition), I believe it will be a move in the right direction. Let's see, 90k/4=22.5k per year, plus the interest that will accumulate on that means I will be paying what amounts to the yearly per capita income of the average American just to go to Colorado instead of Indiana.

Is it worth it? Of course it is. Would I still go if the school wasn't brand-spanking-new? Yes, I would. I need to live near the mountains, the forests, the parks, the open spaces of nature! Why wait four years to move there and work when the opportunity exists now? Of course, I'll be at school all the time, but Ritsuko and Masa won't. I believe this is going to be a stressful time for us as a family, and I want them to have as much fun as possible, and I think Denver will be a much better fit for us than Indianapolis ever could.

Anyway, here are a few pictures I took of the facilities while I was taking my tour of U of Colorado's dental school. The one up top is of the outside of the school.

Student basement lounge

View of lobby from 2nd floor

The lab (no basement dungeon here!!)

Example of the operatories. Every chair has an iMac associated with it.

View of the Anschutz Medical Campus

University of Colorado School of Dental Medicine

2008-01-21T13:16:00.003-07:00

On Friday, Jan. 18th, I received an invitation to interview at Colorado!! I was excited when I heard from the other schools, but this was the best. Just getting an interview at Colorado, a school that traditional accepts few out-of-state and even fewer non-WICHE students, is incredible. I immediately booked my flight and car, and unlike my trips to Philadelphia and Baltimore, I plan on staying for more than one day (Feb 8th-10th). Even if I don't get accepted, and the odds are against me, I feel like just getting an interview is an accomplishment in itself.
I talked to Ritsuko, and we both have pretty much decided that if I get accept, we will almost definitely go to Colorado. We have talked so much about living there, this would be the perfect opportunity. I don't want to get my hopes up too much, but I really would love living in/near Denver! Just look at this picture:

Language Requirements for Immigrants

2008-01-15T12:34:00.002-07:00

During my daily browse of the Japanese news, I came across this in the Government section of the Yomiuri Shinbun Online, the title translating to "Discussion Held at Meeting on Language Ability Requirements for Foreigners Abiding (in Japan) for Long Periods of Time." The article mentioned the arguments for such requirements, presented by the Foreign Minister, such as preserving social harmony and improving school attendance (???).

Now, I knew that Japan isn't to keen on long-term foreigners (even the primarily white, English-speaking JETs the government brings over are limited to 3-4 years), but I didn't think they'd go this far. So, I searched to see what came up in the US news with regards to language requirements, etc., and actually found that some European countries have also discussed such restrictions (Germany, Sweden, France). I guess this idea's pretty popular!

Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I like the idea of people coming in and using whatever language they please. If it doesn't suit them to learn the native tongue (I could have easily lived in Japan for four years without much Japanese), then so be it. That's how I always envisioned the United States developing. Then again, I do see it as almost a courtesy to learn the language of whatever country you are in. Am I contradicting myself?

Anyway, I think it's almost time to go home...

Japanese Faculty at IU School of Dentistry

2008-01-15T10:28:00.001-07:00

I came across a faculty list and just thought I'd look for any Japanese working at Indiana University's School of Dentistry. I found one: Masatoshi Ando, DDS, PhD. He holds the position of an Assistant Professor in the Department of Preventive and Community Dentistry. He also holds a similar part-time position at the Osaka Dental University. This could definitely open up the possibility of getting into a bit of dentistry in Japan. I will have to introduce myself to Dr. Ando sometime soon.

Grass Makes Better Ethanol than Corn

2008-01-11T10:33:00.002-07:00

Sweet. Not only can I continue to eat cheap corn-on-the-cob, but I can also plant switchgrass in my yard and only mow it once a year because I can sell it for ethanol!

Beech Grove, Indiana

2008-01-10T08:15:00.000-07:00

In our search for an affordable, comfortable, and safe community to live in for the next four years, Ritsuko and I stumbled across a little town called Beech Grove. Surrounded by the city of Indianapolis, we wander over to the Beech Grove area near the end of our day-long Indianapolis neighborhood inspection and immediately realized that this was the place for us! Originally attracted to it due to the high rating it's schools are given, we soon found ourselves comment on how nice everything looked (well-kept properties), how it had a pleasant small-town feel (much warmer than many of the suburban, more expensive neighborhoods we looked at), and also how convinient living there would be. Granted, I would have a 15-20 min commute in to school each day, but it seems that the many pluses would outweight this. I can't really think of any other negatives, either. I guess the town is not very diverse (racially), but we can live with that. Oh, there's even an "Irish Pub" on one of the little main streets! Perfect.

Statistics for Beech Grove (from 2000 census??) there were even a few Japanese living there!

Great George W. Bush Picture

2008-01-07T14:47:00.000-07:00

Tim Boyle of Bloomberg News is a genius for capturing this picture. This is one of George W. that truly is worth a thousand words. I just had to share.