Websites Worth Following (in no particular order)

1. www.slate.com
Informative articles on pretty much everything. Refreshed daily.

2. www.lamebook.com
Exactly what it says. All the lame stuff people post on facebook. Always gives me a laugh. Updated daily.

3. www.metacritic.com
Better than Rotten Tomatoes. Plus its got everything in one place (Movies, TV, Music, Books). Great great website for finding new TV shows or Movies worth watching.

4.

Reader Request: Storing Brushes

My most loyal reader suggested I do a quick post about how I store my make up brushes. Its actually quite funny, because I only wake up early enough to wear makeup about once a month. But when I do, I like to have everything really organized. I got the idea to store brushes like this after seeing a display of brushes at Sephora, however instead of using pebbles they were using small plastic white balls. I think the pebbles are prettier though. I got the small glass shallow bowl at Micheal's for less than five dollars. One advantage of storing brushes this way (apart from the esthetically pleasing quality) is that the brushes don't come in contact with each other, keeping things nice and clean.

Easy Last Minute Halloween Costume Ideas (ok cop outs)

1. The Ipod Dancer: This "costume" involves minimal effort and won't require you to expend any $. I wish I could say I thought of this myself, but an ingenious friend of mine actually showed up to a Halloween party two years ago dressed like this. The level of easiness/laziness really impressed me!
All you will need for this costume is:
1. Black Cotton Shirt (the planer the better). Long sleeves probably works better.

2. Black pants or black jeans.

3. Converse Sneakers in Black. Black keds or any other dark colored sneakers work well too.

4. Your Ipod. The white headphones are key! A major plus of this "costume" is that you can listen to your own music if the DJ sucks!

First Interview

So two days ago I had my first interview for residency. It was an interview for my intern year so it wasn't as stressful as a dermatology interview (I'm guessing). I want to just say a few things about the interview as it was you know my first interview and firsts are kind of important but I don't wan to give anything away so I'll have to be a little vague. So I interviewed with two people, the chief resident and the program director. Both were very nice. I didn't know what to expect and the only thing I really did was that I made sure to smile when I walked in, make good eye contact, and have a firm handshake. I'm a FIRM believer in the firm handshake. (no pun intended ha ha). In my humble opinion, there's nothing worse than meeting someone who doesn't give you a good handshake, and I must say if I was at the other end of the table I would really be unimpressed by a limp handshake. Anyway, what really surprised me was how short both the interviews were. They were both 15 minute interviews, but I swear the first one with the chief resident was more like 5 minutes. He seemed pretty busy and admitted that he hadn't had a chance to look at my file. So when I got the dreaded "Tell me about yourself" question, I really did have to tell him about myself because he knew pretty much nothing. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I didn't really get any hard questions, but I certainly made a couple faux paus, like when I asked the program director if she thought the program was "laid back" and she basically thought I was looking for an easy year and responded by telling me she had very high standards. The chief resident later told me the word I was looking for was "collegial." But you live and you learn. All in all the best part however was meeting the other kids interviewing, with the exception of me and another dude going into radiology, every other applicant was applying for ophthalmology. Everyone was extremely nice and mostly pretty cool. One girl who had already been on a quite a few interviews had even brought a few magazines to keep herself entertained.

Mad Men Season 3 Finale

Honestly, have not seen a better season finale than this one. It left enough excitement for next season, while logically tying up all the lose ends that were building up this through out the season. Loved the ending when Don walks into a new Brown Stone that Joan has found for him. If for some reason you are still not watching this show, I just don't know what else to say! Brilliant to the 10th.

New shows to catch on Hulu

Because my Wednesday's are already full with Glee, I recently stumbled across and now like to regularly catch up on two new ABC shows: Cougar Town (only mildly enjoyable but it does grow on you) and Modern Family (seriously LOL funny moments that I think about long afterwards). I think Modern Family in particular (ABC 9/8 C) is a really really well written LOL show with a great heart (if that even makes sense!). I've watched about 5 episodes of both these shows and feel that Modern Family is definitely definitely worth watching. Really can't say enough how great this show is. Go ahead and give Cougar Town a go if you've got plenty of time to burn (as in you've really got NOTHING better to do with your time). In general I want to give myself a bit of a pat on the back because I've done a good job on picking the better new fall TV shows this year. Just recently there was an article in EW (entertainment weekly) where they named the two best new Fall TV shows as Modern Family (1) and Vampire Diaries (2). So I feel good about myself in my TV discerning abilities! Not that EW is the end all be all holy grail, but still...

Understanding Cosmetic "Claims"

OK. So its hard not to notice all the TV commercials and print ads for cosmetics that claim to improve the tone of your skin or fend off age spots etc. Well, I've done a couple derm. rotations now and i'd like to save somebody some money, or at least make them wiser consumers. Take this foundation for example by clinique, which is called "even better" foundation, SPF 15, evens and corrects. So how exactly does this foundation even and correct? Well usually (well, a properly labeled product) should say on the back what the active ingredient is when they make any sort of claim, such as "even and correct" in this case. If you flip to the back label, you will see Titanium Dioxide as the active ingredient, which is nothing more than a physical sunscreen. It is true that sunscreen over dark spots will help them fade a bit faster but you can save yourself a bunch of $$$ and just put on some sunscreen yourself and not buy said product. Also, most studies show the SPF in cosmetics doesn't really amount to much. Therefore you can "even and correct" infinitely better with a proper drugstore sunscreen. Hope that helped someone. Always check the active ingredients when you read any sort of cosmetic claim!

My Favorite Commercial of the year

OK so this commercial is a couple months old, but when I saw it I just burst out laughing. Love the fact that there can be such an insanely awesome "rock star." I need to start using USB's more! Use the link below to view. Enjoy!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqLPHrCQr2I

Sites I check Every-Day

So here's the websites I check everyday, the first few are pretty standard:
1. gmail.com
2. facebook.com
3. people.com
4. youtube.com
5. pubmed.com <---the inner science geek in me finds a reason to use this research search engine every couple days for something or other

A site you may not know about but that I quite like:

6. omiru.com <---shows you practical ways to put together outfits with things you probably already have in your closet.




.

What the Vampire Craze is All About

So I was just sitting around when I noticed a poster for the New Moon movie that is coming out soon. And then I got to thinking about all the plethora of Vampire books/movies/TV shows that are all pretty hot right now. So the main three that come to mind are the Twilight (saga), True Blood, and The Vampire Diaries (both TV shows). I was just thinking about what all of these were about when I realized how much of a female fantasy all these things were, because essentially all these books (that are now TV shows or movies) are about one "normal" girl who is stuck in a love triangle with two vampires. How is this not every girl's fantasy, well not necessarily the vampire part, but to have TWO amazing guys (with special powers) trying to get with you. Especially when the guy has been around for 1000+ years (but looks like he is 25), seen all types of women, and is still fascinated only by you. Anyone else think it odd that the central theme to all three of these books essentially comes down to a love triangle.

Shows I am watching this fall...

So there are so many things to do everyday, and sometimes I get confused and forget when to watch what. Most of the time, I miss watching the show in the "correct" time slot. So I made this little list to help me out a bit.

Monday:
Gossip Girl (CW at 9): Worth watching just for what Blair says and wears
Greek (abc family at 9): A solid if not great show

Tuesday:
Nothing! I feel empty on this day.

Wednesday:
Glee (9 pm on FOX): 3 episodes in and going good so far

Thursday:
Vampire Diaries (8pm on CW): The show I actually look forward to more than I thought I would (especially now that True Blood is off the air). Also, I think that Stefan guy is totally hot.

Friday:
Another day of void.

Saturday:
More gloom. Ugh.

Sunday:
only.......the best night of TV.......ever

Mad Men (10pm on AMC): This show only keeps getting better and better. Don Draper for-ever. Though I must say I love the Joan and Peggy story lines too though.

(And of course True Blood and Entourage when they are playing in the summer).

Yay! New haircut

So this morning I woke up super early (7:00 am...egad) to get a haircut (appointment at 8am!)
And it turned out super-fab...I think. Got lots of compliments on it, which is always a plus. But it got me thinking, was I going about life with really horrible hair the past couple months? It sure is a scary thought. Also scary, seeing what my hair will look like without the professional blowout and globs of product thrown in there! But the hairstylist spent a good hour cutting it- so hopefully it will hold up, and I like what he's done in the past. How much do you guys spend on haircuts, and how often do you get them? (Personally I dropped $60--$50 list price with $10 tip for the owner of the salon who cut my hair, and I usually get my hair cut 2-3x/year). 
P.S.- The style I got was a long bob with long side bangs on right.

Gossip Girl Season 3 Premiere

So today was the premiere of Season 3 of Gossip Girl (GG). I tuned in at 8, only to find that they had changed the time to 9. Drat. But in the end that was probably a good thing because I actually got about a 1/2 hour of work done before tuning in at 9. First off, there were so many things weird about the episode. Like the fact that I couldn't really remember anything that happened last season. And also, sadly, that I failed to really care about what happened to any of the main characters, except for Chuck and Blair. I'm not sure why, but apart from the great clothes (minus Serena who in my humble opinion is just waaaay overdone) all the story lines were just too played out. I mean all the girl characters have already been with all the guy characters....TWICE. Hah. I think I'll give it another go next week, but sadly it has definitely lost that newness factor, something that happens even to the best of shows and I suppose it is hard for writers to keep thigns fresh by the 3rd season, especially for a show that has always relied on a lot of buzz and shock value.

New Shows I'm going to try out...

Glee Image: LA times

OK. So for once, I actually have a lot of time on my hands. And what do I do with it? Pick up more shows to watch of course! As the summer HBO shows are ending (True blood, Entourage, Hung), its time to pick up some new network shows to fill in the time. Two shows, that look interesting in premise at least so far are, Glee (Fox) and The Vampire Diaries (the CW). The Vampire Diaries seems like it may be a High School version of True Blood/Twilight. But lets see if it's any good. I'm more excited for Glee which is by the creator of Nip/Tuck (Ryan Murphy). Vampire Diaries is from the creator of Dawson's Creek.

The best moisturizer I've ever used, period

So, I've finished 4 weeks of my derm. rotation. I just wanted to pass on some information for anyone out there who is possibly reading this blog. The best moisturizer I've ever found (and what I was surprised to find the dermatologists at work were actually recommending- no pharmaceutical reps are allowed to come to the academic center where I work- is the above product. I don't use it everyday, but I use it on my face and elbows when I feel like my skin's getting really really dry. You just need to use a tiny bit of this stuff and its really well priced for how long it lasts (you can find it at most major stores, I got mine at CVS). I've only gone through about half the jar in a year. Its really great for super dry flaky skin or patches.

The best shows on TV period

1. Mad Men. Sad but true, no one can ever be as cool as Don Draper.



2. True Blood. Can't beat the Bill-Sookie-Eric love triangle.



3. The Inbetweeners. A BBC show about awkward teenage boys that nobody out of the UK knows about, but is probably the most BRILL show ever.



4. Gossip Girl. OK so this is actually a really BAD show but that's precisely what makes it so GOOD. For me, its worth it for all the fashion I will probably never be able to afford.


5. Ugly Betty. Can't help it, I totally dig the over the topness of this show.

Hat and going out theory

I decided to retry the hat theory. The theory I proposed before that if you go out wearing a hat, tons of guys will hit on you. well to make sure it wasn't a one time thing and just limited to a certain geographic location, I went out this weekend and wore the same hat, in a totally different city. and the results were again the same. guys who would usually never talk to me, guys who would normally NEVER talk to me, came over, made some witty or quipy comment about my hat, either nice like they liked it or mean like asking me if I was a MJ wannabe. Either way, it ended with either being asked to dance, or asked if I would please give them my real number. I swear, this hardly ever happens when I don't wear my hat. I wish someone would try this to verify my theory...

Pediatrics gave me a present: Ringworm

One thing about peds, is that there is a lot of derm. Kids got all sorts of rashes going on. You wouldn't' believe. A couple weeks ago in fact, I saw 3 kiddos with ring worm, and then a few weeks later, i got this itchy patch on my forearm (the same place I had previously scratched when i had a hive- so i think the skin over that part of my arm was kinda raw (ie. the epithelial barrier was broken) which I think set me up for a really awesome present from these super cute kids. Anyway, I just started treating it with an anti-fungal cream. So hopefully that's what it is. And hopefully some time in the future I can conveniently run into a dermatologist in the hospital and ask for an opinion. Anyway- can you believe the nerve of these kiddos- giving me such a crummy present for taking care of em so well? No good deed goes unpunished indeed. And yes for the record, I did wash my hands and follow all the precautions.
p.s.- that's not my arm in the picture, i didn't really have a red ring like that- and thus still haven't figured out exactly what it is.
UPDATE- I think it may have just been a patch of eczema. The antifungal cream didn't seem to help at all even after 2 weeks, went away on its own in about 6 months. The mystery remains...

writing

Am trying to write an article. A pretty long one. The only problem is that between rotations, studying and my love of TV, i'm hardly getting ANY writing done. Feeling demoralized by the epic task at hand, i've started to break it down. In stead of saying to myself that i'm going to spend the whole weekend writing- a blatant blatant lie to myself- i've decided to just do small parts at a time, like a whole hour of writing without checking things on the internet. And then another whole hour after a break. Lets see if it works.
p.s.- sometimes the thinking makes my head hurt so bad that i'd much rather study or do dishes. now that's really saying something.
UPDATE- Finished what I was working on. Feel pretty damn good about myself.

if you wear a hat, guys WILL hit on you

First off, GREAT news. Scored 91%tile on my medicine shelf, much higher than I thought I would score. Was not expecting that at all honestly.
Second off, went to Philly to celebrate being done with the first half of Surgery. While there I went shopping and picked up a cheap fedora hat (a lot like the hat in the picture).
Hung out at the bar with some friends and then went to meet up with some acquaintances at a nearby club. Normally I don't really expect for anyone to talk to me. But I cannot keep track of how many guys came up to me to compliment me on my hat, or better yet, tell me how good I looked in it! It must have been at least 10-15 guys, which is um not normal for me. (normal for me is 0 in case you were wondering...)
So what I learned from this is, basically guys/girls do notice you, they probably just don't know what to say because you don't look that approachable. But wear a fun, crazy hat or any other article of clothing or accessory that is appropriate to comment on and you'll be fending away admirers.
Seriously, try this trick on your own, you will be surprised!

new face wash

am going to start using a new face wash starting first thing tomorrow morning. i had heard good things about this product through the grapevine and the thing that really got me willing enough to try it was the fact that it contains quite a large percentage of benzoyl peroxide (an antibacterial and skin peeling agent).
will report back on how well I think its actually working.

UPDATE: after one week of use, using every other day until my skin gets used to it, appears to be working. also found out that certain dermatologists actually recommend this very product to be used in conjunction with something like Retin-A-micro.
UPDATE #2: while this product does work really well. I couldn't help but feel like it really really dried my skin out, especially in the winter. After sticking it out for a couple months, I switched to a 5% benzoyl peroxide gel that I apply to problem areas after washing my face with a mild cleanser. I find this works better for me. For someone with mild acne, who is looking for a quick regimen with normal (non-sensitive) skin, this product will work really well. For someone with drier or more sensetive skin, a regular spot application of 2.5% benzoyl peroxide would probably work better. You can find this easily in any grocery store or drug store. Usually sells for less than $3 and will last you at least six months.

Surgery

I'm two weeks into my general surgery rotation now. Its a lot of blood and guts let me tell you folks : not nearly as exciting as Grey's Anatomy. In fact its really just a lot of standing and retracting and looking stupid when the surgeon suddenly asks you a question and you don't have a clue about whats going on.
What's a retractor? Its the thing in the picture. A metal device that pulls the flesh away so a surgeon can see better. And yes, I basically just hold that for hours at a time.

oh boy I need a break

8/23/08
9:46
Should have been studying. Instead I keep being distracted by random thoughts that pop into my head and then a rampant need to google or wiki it. Totally stupid things too, like who the Hell is Joe Biden, and how come I never heard of him before.
Yest I know the answer to that is because I don't follow the news, but still.
Medicine shelf exam in a week. This is a big thing. My grade on this exam means a lot. I have to hit the 75% to get honors evaluation, which is the top grade you can get. And of course something that all other derm applicants I will compete with will have. So whats with the picture? Oh its just me trying to be artsy fartsy with a camera. I like it though!

UPDATE: Ended up doing really well on the medicine shelf, well past the 75% cutoff!

What This Blog is All About

Hi there, thank you for reading this blog. Here's what it is all about. I like to keep things short and to the point and I generally post into four broad categories:
1. Life (any life events I delude myself into thinking are interesting enough to post on here).
2. Derm (I'm a med student applying into dermatology, my friends think that must mean I actually know something-I don't-but I do a quick blurb on something derm. related if someone requests it).
3. TV (I know they say TV isn't a very intelligent use of time, but I just can't help myself).
4. Random (pretty much my wastebasket category).