Do you keep waiting for this website to update? Well don't get your hopes up. All the original replace friends have moved on to their own blogs and such. But you can go over to replacementfriends.com to see what's going on with me... Rich.
As for now, this website will still act as a starting place to stay updated on "the above listed" blogs, which are all awesome!
At some point I'm going to have this page redirect you to... REPLACEMENTFRIENDS.COM!!! I have uploaded every single post from this blog to the new website.
Here's the announcement I put on the new website:
Lisha gave me a couple great Christmas presents. First, a pair of manly boots. Secondly, she bought me my own website. This website. The one that you are currently on: replacementfriends.com.
I am so excited! It is something I have always wanted to do. So now let’s talk about the changes.
First, you will notice that I have moved the blog from blogger to tumblr. Second, you may notice that I have usurped the blog from Michael, Stephen, and Jeffrey. But really… they stopped posting on the blog like a year ago. Plus they can still post on this one… and so. can. you!
This is a feature I am very excited about! Anyone visiting this blog can be a replacement friend! Just click “become a replacement friend” and you can then post a thought, link, picture, video… anything. Then it will get sent to me for my approval and voila: you are replacement friend-ed!
Another feature I am excited about is “ask me a question”. Let’s say I don’t post enough to your liking. Just click ask me a question I will be emailed your question, to which I promise to respond, and it will become it’s very own blog post.
So Lisha went to the dentist yesterday... it was an experience. Just look at what was "hanging" from the ceiling when she went to get 3 cavities filled... click here (kinda NSFW).
Not only that... the whole office was decked out. Pop art every where. Pure whiteness and modern furniture. There were iMacs at the front desk. According to Lisha, it is like they plugged my iPod into the speaker system and pressed play for all there patients.
Did I go into the wrong profession?
The only thing I hear while I'm writing SOAP (subjective. objective. assessment. plan.) notes is the CNA talking in a loud voice to old Mr. Jones (name has been changed for HIPAA), "DID YOU PASS STOOL TODAY... WAS IT LOOSE... WE NEED TO GET A SAMPLE".
And yet... we have this huge advantage over dentists. You know what I'm talking about ladies:
I saw McDreamy and I knew what I wanted to do with my life: a) constant 5 o'clock shadow (check) b) live in Seattle (check) c) yell "Get out of my OR!" (probably will never get to do this because surgery is boring... seriously, if I have to stare at another jejunum for 3 hours...) d) have a nervous breakdown after a failed clinical trial where I kill dozens of patients (I can only dream) e) yell at someone named "Karev" (if only people actually had this ridiculous name) f) get married on a sticky note (already did this... on the sticky note of eternity!) g) win a malpractice suit against someone who will eventually come back to the hospital to shoot me... and then a resident (preferably Asian female) will save my life by carefully removing a bullet that is just touching my ascending Aorta...
A man can only dream. Except compared to dentists: I am one step closer to living that dream.
So the wife and I both have callings in YM/YW. This past weekend we were asked to hold a Book of Mormon read-a-thon at our house. What did this mean?
24 hr. Overnight. Read the entire Book of Mormon.
Long story short. By 4AM we were losing them. Hard core.
You might be interested to know what we tried doing. Basically, this was a small affair. We had like 8 youth. We started off with a pizza dinner and we watched the Book of Mormon Movie: Volume 1 - Lehi's Journey. This of course was epic and covered 1st and 2nd Nephi (basically, right?). Then the rest of the activity had peppered seminary and cartoon videos from every reading we could apply them too. The kids loved this... and the reason for this love was best summed up by this statement, "Put on a video so we can sleep some more."
Awesome. We are totally getting through to them.
But at the end of the day, I think we got through to them. And I think we had a fun time. And we ate a lot of junk food.
This is SO much better than Lisha's dorm room 11-inch television. Seriously. When you have to run up to the screen and read aloud the subtitles to everyone else watching... your screen might be too small. However, I still feel like a sell out. When you buy a plasma television, you can't deny that some how you have become the "consumer". Right? It is a luxury. Totally, unnecessary.
But it feels... so good.
I love movie nights so much more! It looks and sounds SO much better. It was totally worth passing out while I sold my blood for autoimmune research.
Yep. That's how I bought it. I sold my body for research. I also did garden work. I sold old textbooks. And I put all the money I made in a jar; old school. Just like when I bought my Sega Genesis. By the way, I totally recommend this slush fund jar method. It is amazing how much money you can make when you just start looking around for odd ways to make it. And then you put it in your jar.
Have we lost touch with you... the common people? It is as though we have a protective shell around us, like a hermit crab or a mermaid booby.
I know, I know… It has been forever. You probably thought this blog was going to end up like so many others. The one's where there is only one post that goes like "Well, I thought I would give blogging a chance. I'm going to write my day to day observations and my opinions on current events and post interesting links to blah blah blah"... and then there is nothing else.
Not so my beloved homeboys and homegirls. Where do I even start!? So much has happened.
Let's see. Well, the National Board of Osteopathic Medicine thinks I'm good enough to be a doctor (suckers). It looks like my "internet fast" worked... okay confession I totally used the internet for non-test purposes... okay another confession I totally got really good at this flash game called ragdoll tennis. But still I passed my first of many board examinations that I will take throughout my life... wait, why am I doing this again? To help people, ah crap.
What else? Well, after I took my test I retreated to the Motherland: Canada. Lisha loved it there so much that she said, and I quote, "Sure it's nice now, but it's so freaking cold in the winter." You here that Mom? She totally wants to live in Winnipeg! But for reals, in Canada we be dining on crab and sipping on sum sizzurip... Three 6 Mafia reference.
What else? Say what! My family was in the Emerald City! Including my elegible bachelor broseph that just got home from his Latter-Day Saint missionary work in Denmark. Highlights: clams and linguini, new Brooks Brother bathing suit not purchased by me (fist clenched. eyes closed. "yesssss"), and having my family visit us.
What else? North Carolina! Yes, and if you're wondering, I did take my shirt off, twist it around my hand, and spinned it like a helicopter. Once again, with the family. Where do I even start? Basically, it is a constant barrage of fun. I get to act like a kid. For example, my brothers and I dig ginormous holes at beach. One of our aunts was like, "Why do you guys do this?" And we were like, "We do it for the little cousins because they love playing in them."... but mostly, it's for us. We love digging them, getting buried in them, and pretending like we're digging trenches in WWI in Lille, France. And we would reach China if it we could somehow avoid hitting water. Okay fine, and the little cousins love the holes as well.
And now we're back in Seattle. Sun kissed skin, so hot we'll melt your popsicle.
If you don't hear from me... it is because I am going to become a hermit. Now we all know kind of what a hermit is, but I would like to share a little more about what it means. Once again, I am going to rip something off of Wikipedia:
"In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Christian who lives the eremitic life out of a religious conviction, namely the Desert Theology of the Old Testament (i.e., the forty years wandering in the desert that was meant to bring about a change of heart)."
I don't know how to say this... I'm switching to Catholicism.
Just kidding. I am becoming a medical student hermit to bring about a change of brain. I'm going to make it smart. And instead of forty years, I have 42 days. Take that Israelites!
What does this mean? I am barely, if ever, going to be using the computer. Jesus went without food and bread for forty days, I am going without the computer (mostly, practice tests are online). So I just need to say goodbye to a few things: goodbye iChat with Mike; goodbye Gizmodo; goodbye NY Times; goodbye Slate; goodbye Engadget; goodbye blogger; goodbye Hulu; goodbye Netflix
But mostly, goodbye iTunes.
So in short, I will barely be updating this blog (if ever). Luckily, we have Mike, Steve, and Jeff updating this blog as well... hahaha, ah that's funny (that will never happen).
So goodbye. I leave you with a Bob Dylan playlist. I meant to post this a long time ago. It basically is a list of Dylan songs that I believe will make a convert out of anyone... unless you don't have a heart.
It is time for my favorite day of the year: Siete de Mayo. It is the day that the independence of Greece was finally recognized via the Treaty of London. Then, as everyone knows, the Otto of Wittelsbach, Prince of Bavaria was chosen King.
It is still just dumbfounding that despite Greece's vital role in political theory and as, arguably, the centerpiece of the world for several centuries, the Hellenistic period was brought to a close two centuries later with the establishment of Roman rule over Greek lands in 146 BC.
I was talking about this with Mike and he made the argument that Greece's loss of control truly began with the Byzantine Empire in 330 AD around Constantinople.
This got my mind spinning and made me reflect on how Byzantium remained a major cultural and military power for the next 1,123 years, until the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. On the eve of the Ottoman conquest, much of the Greek intelligentsia migrated to Italy and other parts of Europe not under Ottoman rule, playing a significant role in the Renaissance through the transmission of ancient Greek works to Western Europe. Nevertheless, the Ottoman millet system contributed to the cohesion of the Orthodox Greeks by segregating the various peoples within the empire based on religion, as the latter played an integral role in the formation of modern Greek identity.
Tomorrow, the real March Madness will begin... the Renton Stake Basketball Tournament brought to you by the LDS church. Is there anything greater than watching the elder's quorum president spew profanities while he simultaneously fellowships the non-member 6'7" ringers?
Nay. There is nothing greater.
I have a confession about my team. We haven't won a single game. We have come close... but close does not win games. At first I thought, maybe when we get our uniforms we'll play more like a team. Well we got our uniforms, and I think it certainly helped us become a team (i.e. recognize each other on the court)... but the only sizes we got were XL, XXL, XXXL and... wait for it... XXXXL.
Needless to say, on a team where the average height is 5'8", we look like where are playing dress up in Daddy's clothes.
So what we are going in winless? That just means our win will be that much more awesome. Hopefully we are not playing the team with the median age of 45... because daaaaaang they know the fundamentals. The pick and roll so much it is like an ballet.
Hopefully we are not playing the team that has 5 awesome players and 5 bad players. I call that our accordion game. The awesome 5 would go in and they would be ahead by 15. Second string comes in, we close the gap to 3 points. First string in, 15 points. Second string in, 3 points.
Hopefully we are not playing the team with that ultimate two-face douche. You know the guy. He's swearing it up. Getting angry when you call fouls on him. BUT then after the game he's acting like your buddy, and complimenting you on specific moments in the game where you did particularly well. Little does he know... I KNOW I'm already totally awesome.
So throw me the rock. I am about to own this game!
P.S. I might even unveil something I haven't busted out since Junior High... the two hand slap-backboard lay up (Stephen will understand this).
Yes. We made it. We won the only gold medal that mattered. Yes. It feels so good. In fact I was so proud, I grew a copper red hair in my beard (true story). Yes. I have been growing a beard off and on... all the time. I grow it. Then it bugs me and I shave. I like what I have going on, and I'm glad Lisha doesn't mind.
So what is up! I'm sure you didn't come here hoping to read about Canada and my beard. But maybe you did. How about this? So as you read on Lisha's blog she received a glowing evaluation from work. I was so happy for her. It is so awesome! So we went out to celebrate. We probably took an hour to find a place we both wanted to go to. But what did we find? We found noodles. Delicious noodles!
So good. So good, that we had to go again on Monday for take out. Trust me, this is very new for us. We eat out maybe once every two weeks. This place was just THAT good. Mmm, mmm, mmm!
Oh ya, it's called "In the Bowl". It has a billion glowing reviews on the internet. And they deserve it, BIG TIME. So next time any of you are in town we will take you there.
That reminds me. We need visitors. We miss everyone so much. I know, I know. It is probably our turn to visit you.
Wait hold on a second, this post is sounding like a married blog post. I was about to write about how we're looking for a new place to live. Yikes! How boring is that? Okay new direction.
So, I am playing church basketball. It is SO much fun. We totally have not won a single game. BUT it is never a blow out. Our games are usually really close. It is a little heartbreaking, but the league is really chill. There is a definite lack of the BYU douche-hards that would play intramural ball.
Maybe we would have more succes though if I started to get more in their face. Like, during the last game I totally stuffed this guy. But afterwards... I didn't do anything. I just went down to the other side of the court to play offense. But what, I should have done was wave my "Mutombo" finger. Or at least, yelled "Not in MY house!".
And maybe when I score a basket, I should leave my hand in the air as I back-skip-pedal down to our defensive end. Maybe some chest bumping. Maybe I should just full on rip my shirt off after I get a rebound.
I mean, these are all good ideas. So word to your mother, and enjoy the music I am posting below this. Maybe you will find some new gems for your collection. They are are totally downloadable! Just right-click and save as!
I was looking at our blog and wondering if I wanted to make any changes. Then I thought to myself, "what about changing our top graphic!".
So I started doodling around with different pictures and different fonts... but it turns out I'm not that good at this stuff. I wish I took a course in graphic design or at least had some innate artistic ability.
So what ended up happening is that I kept the Lichtenstein at the top... but I made a subtle, or not so subtle change. Can you spy what I did?
On another note, a bunch of people in class today were mocking / trying to grasp the intricacies of curling. I am so glad I was able to curl in High School PE and learn the rules of the game. Really the basics are not that difficult. Whoever is closets to the middle and within the circle automatically gets a point and then they get "bonus" points for every stone that is next closest as long as the other team does not have a stone that is closer.
Was that clear, or just more confusing?
Is anyone else loving the Winter Olympics? And on another note hates the way NBC presents the olympics (ie. not live most of the time)?
I saw this today while surfing the information superhighway (remember when newscasters would call it that?). It made me think of my relationship with Lisha. I feel like Michael would want Whitney to feel the same way. But since I'm the one posting it, I dedicate the above sentiments to Lisha.
At some point in the late-80s our family procured a video camcorder. It was used sparingly throughout the years, but the one thing that was always recorded was when we were opening up presents. We have barely any videos of grandparents, vacations, everyday life, sports games, recitals, or just of funny stuff we would do as kids. But if you want to see a video of us opening up presents we have a veritable catalogue from December 1988 to December 2001 of every gift opening, birthday or Christmas.
I'm going to share with you two of mine and Stephen's greatest gift moments.
I remember the day when Dad bought a $2000 computer. It had a hard disk drive and 640KB of RAM. Its operating system was a DOS tree program. Anyways, one year I got a present that caused me to raise it over my head triumphantly and yell "COMPUTER DISKS!" This makes me smile because some of that excitement stays with me. I love playing old arcade games (especially PacMan) and I still love doodling around on computers. But anyways, the computer discs in my hand were actually a trifector of the biggest games shows in the 80s: Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, and Family Feud. Do these pictures bring back any memories for anyone else?
Now for Stephen. Probably some of the coolest after-pictures of Christmas day were Stephen's incredible poses with his Hot Keyz key-tar. Does anyone else remember Hot Keyz? I was going to get a picture from Stephen's Facebook... BUT Stephen deleted his profile recently. So close. So if you're there Stephen, try to wrangle up some of your Hot Keyz pictures.
But anyways, the Hot Keyz (the 'z' is important) was awesome. In particular I remember that if you held one particular key down it would play the melody for "Born in the U.S.A."... except it wouldn't play the whole song. It would actually just play the melody for the singular line of "Born in the U.S.A."... just "dow dow dada dow dow dow... dow dow dada dow dow dow... dow dow dada dow dow dow". Then you could change the tempo and key. Totally awesome!
So, the organization of my education at medical school is way different than my education experiences of the past. We pretty much learn one thing at a time based on organ system. These organ systems include things like gastrointestinal, renal, musculoskeletal, neurology, endocrine, and cardiopulmonary to name a few. Then I learn all the basic science dealing with one specific system. The basic science includes topics like microbiology, biochemistry, pathology, immunology, anatomy and such. Then after a period of 3 - 10 weeks I take a final exam.
Well I just finished another one of these periods (dermatology). I love the day after these tests because I basically have a chance to breathe and relax as we begin a new unit (currently hematology). Thus I write on the Replacement Friend.
I have starting telling a few people that I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. And what I mean by that is this. I actually believe that one day I will be a doctor... and what I mean by that is this. I think I might just be able to remember all this stuff.
So basically, I am not going to become a "Dr. Spaceman"... well except in the fact the government keeps stopping my research as well!
Merry Chiestmas! For some reason my iPhone does not self correct "chiestmas" when I type it in, so Lisha has been wishing me a merry chiestmas ever since. Anyways, this took me a while to finish, but I wanted to leave you all with a list of songs that I loved this year. It is NOT a list of the best of 2009, this is just music that I found myself listening to. Some of it was rediscovered and some of it was discovered. So enjoy! I would love to hear about any ones that you really like from this list or ones that you have really liked this year, because I love listening to new music.
So I can't write a lot because I am studying for a test tomorrow. But I have been meaning to write about something... nay, ask something.
What's with girls? I mean, to be more specific. As Lisha, picks out outfits, chooses nail polishes, does her hair, etc, etc, etc... she will invariably ask wither "Which one do you like best?" or "Does this look okay?"
I respond with my honest opinion. For example, "Grey" or "Ya, you look awesome! I love that skirt"
But then something weird happens, she will almost always respond with "Mmm... I like the red better" or "I don't know, I'm going to wear my leopard print dress."
Blogger is being weird, so you might have to click on the picture to get it to work. But it's cool and so worth it.
Tomorrow, the real March Madness will begin... the Renton Stake Basketball Tournament brought to you by the LDS church. Is there anything greater than watching the elder's quorum president spew profanities while he simultaneously fellowships the non-member 6'7" ringers?
I saw this today while surfing the information superhighway (remember when newscasters would call it that?). It made me think of my relationship with Lisha. I feel like Michael would want Whitney to feel the same way. But since I'm the one posting it, I dedicate the above sentiments to Lisha.
