Sports Saturdays: 2012 Football Wrap Up Part 2

Last week I posted Part 1 of my football wrap up by running down the first part of my list of high school football games I attended. To see the start of the list (including the worst games), click here. This week I conclude that list with the top 8 high school game, as well as the list of college games I went to, and my final top 25 poll.

My Top 8 High School Games of 2012

8. Nov. 2: Lincoln 35 Ocala Forest 28, Forest Stadium (Ocala, FL)

This game was notable to me for a couple different reasons: 1. With the victory Lincoln clinched its 14th consecutive district championship. 2. It was the first time I had ever been to Forest's stadium and it was a very beautiful facility and an enjoyable atmosphere. 3. Lincoln played the entire game without TEN defensive starters which were all left back in Tallahassee due to disciplinary action. As a result of having so few upperclassmen playing defense, the game ended up being much closer than it should have been. Normally that would be a frustrating situation, and certainly at times during the game it was, but ultimately it did nothing but display the tenacity of our team as our exhausted 2nd/3rd string defense made a critical stand in the closing seconds of the game to prevent Forest from scoring to tie or win.

7. Jan. 12: Florida HS All Stars 21 Georgia HS All Stars 14, Mack Thorpe Stadium (Moultire, GA)

Every January there's a series of high school football showcases in the area which pit North Florida high school seniors against their South Georgia counterparts, providing them one more opportunity to show off their skills and potentially get recruited by colleges. "The Border Wars" as they are known are always intriguing due to the rivalry between the Peach and Sunshine states. While the actual play and cohesiveness is often a little lacking (the players only have a couple of practices with each other), it's always entertaining given the sheer number of teams represented. This year's game was probably the best I've been to yet, as it was a good game all along. After Georgia jumped out to a 2nd quarter lead of 14-0, Florida responded by scoring 14 points of their own to tie the game. With time running down, inside of 2 minutes, and the game still tied, Florida held Georgia to a punting situation on about their own 10 yard line. That's when the Florida defense blocked the punt and recovered it in the endzone for the game winning TD. It was very exciting, especially given that the game was played in Georgia territory.

The only thing that really subtracted from the game was that the Florida head coach, Coe of Madison County, played his boys the entire game and as a result, several other hardworking players got little or no playing time. It was very frustrating and made me angry, especially given how hard these guys worked. It's one of those rare instances where the significance of the game is less about who wins and who loses and rather giving these seniors the opportunity to play and go to college. I was very disappointed about this situation and a couple of our Lincoln guys who were there. After the game I talked with parents of two family members of players from different teams: one drove 200+ miles and his grandson played one snap, the other flew in all the way from Houston, TX and his son never was even put in the game! That's terrible in my opinion.

6. Dec. 14: St. Thomas Aquinas 41-25 Lincoln, Orlando Citrus Bowl

 The Class 7A State Championship Game: obviously it makes the upper portion of my list because of the fact that Lincoln made it. If the Trojans had won, there's no doubt that it would have been #1. While the result was a little disappointing, the game was not. Many predicted Lincoln to get blown out in this one (STA is the largest private school in the state and recruits players all over from Pennsylvania to California and everywhere in between, it's completely legal), but the Trojans fought hard from the opening kick off which they ran back for a touchdown. Midway through the 4th quarter, and despite some huge blown coverage plays, Lincoln was right in the game, only down 5 points. But fate was not on their side as STA wore the defense down and ultimately cashed in on a couple late scores to close out the game. Still, it was an excellent experience and the Trojan faithful made the trip worthwhile!

5. Aug. 31: Taylor County 20 Dixie County 19, Bulldog Stadium (Perry, FL)

This game was all about firsts: it was the first time I'd ever seen Dixie County, it was the first time I'd ever seen a game in Perry, and it was the first game I'd ever gone two with Miranda. If that weren't enough of a reason for it to make my top 5, I also got to watch her Dakota play (really well I might add), and oh yeah, it was a pretty good game too! Early on it was looking like Dixie County was going to run away with this one, but Taylor County came storming back, scoring 20 unanswered points to take the lead. Even then, Dixie had a chance with about a minute left and the ball on about the 15 yard line to either score a touchdown or kick a field goal to win the game, but unfortunately for the Bears, the QB scrambled out of the pocket on 2nd down and threw an interception in the back of the endzone. Even though it was a touch loss, Dixie played really well and impressed me. They've certainly got a lot of talent down there.

4. Nov. 16: Lincoln 27 Fleming Island 17, Gene Cox

The first round of the state playoffs and a rematch of last year's first round game in which Fleming Island caught a high-riding Lincoln completely off guard to end their season in the first round for the first time in over a decade. This year the Trojans were coming of their only loss of the regular season (to Godby) and did not take their Eagle foes as lightly. As the score suggests, the game was very close and exciting throughout, with Lincoln clinching revenge in the end. The result was only made sweeter by the fact that it was announced that Buchholz had pulled a massive upset over First Coast and the Trojans would get to play at home for one more game.

3. Nov. 9: Colquitt County 13 Camden County 12, Mack Tharpe Stadium (Moultrie, GA)
One of the best games I've ever seen (which tells you just how good the next two were). Camden County came into the game ranked #3 in the country. Much of the game was extremely defensive, and quite frankly, boring but what made this game so good was the last 5 minutes which saw a flurry of scoring culminated by a late touchdown by Colquitt to take the lead and a drive by Camden that put them into position to attempt a 55 yard field goal for the win. The ball ended up missing wide left but maybe six inches and the Packers claimed the biggest upset that week in the country.

2. Dec. 15: Apopka 53 Cypress Bay 50, Orlando Citrus Bowl
Class 8A State Championship Game: Just look at the score. What else can be said? In  front of a crowd of some 8,000 people both teams led drive after drive in one of the most high scoring affairs I have ever seen. The really impressive statistic behind the numbers is that every single post-scoring possession began on the 20 (each kickoff was a touchback) and up until the very last minute, there was not a single turnover in the game. So basically, each team would get the ball, march down the field, and score. Some people hate games like that, but being a fan of scoring and whacky things, I found it to be quite entertaining. Ultimately, the game ended when Cypress Bay drove all the way down the field in less than a minute, to the 5 yard line. With a tying field goal a certainty and a good possibility of winning the game with a couple seconds left, the quarterback threw a pass into the endzone. It was broken up and appeared to fall straight down to the ground. What I didn't initially see however was that an Apopka player happened to be lying there and the ball fell right in his lap for an interception. It was fitting given how cleanly the whole game had been played, even though overtime would have been even better.

1. Nov. 30: Lincoln 35 Oviedo 29, Oviedo Field (Oviedo, FL)
 The best high school game I attended this year took place in the regional finals of the state playoffs. The game started off rough for the Trojans who quickly found themselves behind the eight ball when following a very impressive goal line stand halted Oviedo at the 1, they promptly got tackled in the endzone on their first offensive play of the game for a safety. This was quickly followed by an Oviedo touchdown and Lincoln was down 9-0 just like that. The Trojans responded, however, like they did all season, scoring a couple times to take the lead. The rest of the game was back and forth back and forth. Lincoln score a touchdown to take the lead with about 2 minutes left, but Oviedo responded very quickly, scoring a touchdown to put them up with about a minute left. Back up against the wall, Lincoln returned the kickoff about 30 yards and then on the very first play from scrimmage, tossed a 50 yard touchdown pass in what would be the final score of the game. A couple of plays later, an interception would seal the deal as Lincoln advance to the State semis and ultimately the State Championship. If the awesome game itself wasn't enough to place this as #1, the amazing turnout of Green and Gold fans (there were several hundred) coupled with time spent visiting with my very good KYX-DAX friends Kevin and Laura Patterson put it over the top.

2012 College Games I Saw in Order of Worst to Best

8. Sept. 8: Florida State 55 Savannah State 0, Doak Campbell

The single worst game I've ever seen in my life. Period. The end. Savannah State would lose to JPII High School, they were that incompetent. If that weren't embarrassing enough, I had to endure a two hour rain delay only to have the game called after the weather finally cleared and play had resumed. I never even knew it was legal to play a shortened game in college. Embarrassing and an utter waste of money and time.

7. Sept. 1: Florida State 69 Murray State, Doak Campbell

Typical for an FBS-FCS opponent. No real complaints, it was fun finally getting to see FSU in action after a long summer.

6. Oct. 13: Florida State 51 Boston College 7, Doak Campbell

I actually enjoy watching FSU beat down conference opponents, but this won was a little 'eh' because it was just a week after the Noles dropped the huge NC State game in terrible fashion.

5. Nov. 24: Florida 37 Florida State 26, Doak Campbell

Really entertaining game both ways. My biggest disappointment is not that FSU lost, but rather that they played as poorly as they did at the end and the score does not reflect the true nature of the game. FSU was actually winning in the 4th quarter with an opportunity to put the game away, but a terrible performance by EJ doomed that. Still, it was an entertaining game.

4. Oct. 27: Florida State 48 Duke 7, Doak Campbell

There were actually Duke fans that thought they'd win. Considering that Duke was better than usual and we dominated them in every phase of the game, I'd say they were wrong.

3. Sept. 15: Florida State 52 Wake Forest 0, Doak Campbell

I always love getting revenge on Wake Forest for the times they've beaten us in recent years. This one was satisfying.

2. Nov. 10: Troy 41 Navy 31, Veterans Memorial Stadium (Troy, AL)

My first time ever seeing a game up at Troy and my first time ever seeing a service academy. Watching Navy play on Veterans Day was simply amazing. There were several regiments of soldiers from Ft. Rucker present as well as several navy officers and veterans. It was just an overall awesome experience with lots of pageantry. Let me say that Troy has an awesome band also. As for the game, it was very competitive up until the very end. Navy has such a strange triple option offense...

1. Sept. 22: Florida State 49 Clemson 37, Doak Campbell

A match up of top 10's. ACC division on the line. First major game of the season. College Gameday. Epic back and forth offensive score fest. I think that sums it up.

Final 2012 National Collegiate Football Poll

The NCF is a poll that I've been coordinating for the past 6 seasons. It consists of weekly top 25 ballots that are completely by 3 independent college football fans which is then combined. Below is the final results from this season:

for immediate release:

1. Alabama 75 (3)

2. Oregon 72

3. Georgia 68

4. Ohio State 65

5. Notre Dame 60

5. Stanford 60

7. Texas A&M 58

8. Florida State 56

9. South Carolina 49

10. Clemson 48

11. Kansas State 47

12. Florida 39

13. LSU 35

14. Louisville 33

14. Utah State 33

16. Northwestern 31

17. Oklahoma 28

18. Texas 20

19. Boise State 17

19. San Jose State 17

21. Oklahoma State 15

22. Nebraska 12

23. Oregon State 11

24. Tulsa 9

25. Northern Illinois 6

Others Receiving Votes: Michigan 5, Vanderbilt 4, UCLA 2.

Free For All Fridays: The Sky, Teeth, and Other Things

Now that high school and college football seasons are over, Football Fridays have officially given way to Free For All Fridays! Every Friday I'll field questions that you, my AWESOME readers, ask me throughout the week. With that said, let's start our first ever Q&A:

Q: Why is the sky blue?

The long scientific answer involves the scattering and reflection of various wavelengths of light from the sun, but I personally think it's because we're all really in the Matrix.

Q: Approximately how many minutes does it take you to brush your teeth in the morning?

A: Kind of a creepy question, but everything's fair game. I'd say it takes me 1-2 minutes, although I'm not timing myself. I brush my teeth twice a day: once after breakfast and once before bed. I've never had cavities, so I guess that works well!

Q: Who is your favorite power ranger?
I never actually watched the power rangers, so I really don't know! On the subject though, a couple of my friends and I had to make a video once for AP Stat in high school and we each voiced over a power ranger. I'll never forget Levon's voice for the Pink Ranger till the day I die. Let me just say it wasn't how you'd expect it to be.

And now my questions for you, the reader!

What is your favorite weekly theme on my blog?

What is something I could do to encourage more dialogue and discussion amongst my readers?

If you could have any superpower, what would it be and why?

Well, kind of a light load of questions this week, hopefully that picks up next week! Remember, without you, there isn't anything to talk about, so be sure to submit questions you'd like me to answer any time you want!

-JT

Literary Thursdays: My WORST of the WORST

Last week for Literary Thursday I posted one of my favorite poems (if you missed that, you can check it out here: Last Week). This week I decided to shake things up by exploring the other end of the spectrum.

As you all know, I like to read a lot. While this has slowed down somewhat during medical school (instead of reading maybe 6-7 books a year, I'm down to reading just 3 or so), it's still an important part of my life. A while back I compiled a list of every book I've ever read (some multiple times) and by my estimation, I've read upwards of 120 different titles. Of those, some of them I truly fell in love with and consider to be some of the best pieces of literature I have ever read, while others I honestly wouldn't touch again with a ten-foot-pole. Now I'm sure in the weeks, months, and years to come I'll talk enough about the novels I laud, but today I wanted to focus instead on the bottom of that list.

Here are the 10 worst books I ever (had to) read:

*a 'P' next to the title means I only read part of the book, in most cases I stopped more than halfway through

10. The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli

Ok, maybe it's not "fair" for me to place this book on the list as it's really more of a 'How To' book for Italian autocrats than a true narrative, but I had to read it in high school and I found it about as interesting as I would some some geeky post-doc's treatise on the procedural order of interplanetary space trade debate in the intergalactic senate in the Star Wars universe. Let me also note that I actually like history and even went through a brief phase in middle school where I daydreamed about world domination. If there was ever anyone who would've actually enjoyed the book, it was me. But I didn't.

9. As I Lay Dying (P) by William Faulkner

Another book I was forced to read in high school, although I only made it halfway before giving up. I'm sorry but an entire book about transporting a dead body in a coffin from the perspective of several different people just isn't interesting to me.

8. The Divine Comedy (P) by Daunte

We only had to read part of this massive piece of Renaissance literature (thank heavens) for 10th grade English. I can't say I'm a fan of 14th century Italian writing, I really can't. I will say though that the project we had to do afterwards where we designed our own 'hells' with multiple layers of punishment based on the book was kind of cool.

7. The Crucible by Arthur Miller

Dull, boring, and dry. I'm sorry, I just don't find plays about early American Puritan settlers to be all that exciting... even if there are trials and executions involved. Too dark for me.

6. Hoot by Carl Hiassen

Heaven help me I hate this book. I hate it! Now you know we're getting to the "good" part of the list when we reach the single book that convinced me to review my ten least favorite reads instead of just five since it ended up coming in at number six... Gosh, this is such a terrible, stupid, idiotic book. I really don't even care if you liked it. Back in high school there were always two "categories" of books for summer reading: the books that our specific classes required (so mostly AP after sophomore year for me) and the books the entire grade had to read (right down through remedial-whatever). I'll let you figure out which category this book fell in. The gist of the story is that there's a chain restaurant (pretty much an IHOP) that's going to be built on an abandoned city block that somehow happens a perfect habitat (even though it's in the middle the city) for an endangered specie of owl. Of course the pancake chain is big and evil and wants to kill everything cute and cuddly and nice, so they're bent on destroying the owls... since it's so much easier to do that than find somewhere else to build. Oh, and of course some conveniently high school-aged kid (which also happens to be the target audience) steps in to prevent it all from happening by protesting. So pretty much it should have been called: Occupy IHOP Construction Site.

Oh, and they made a movie.

5. Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The only two things I can remember about this book are: it was so dull I forgot what was happening halfway through but continued to read it until I finished (and still didn't know what was going on) and, it made me never want to read Crime and Punishment.

4. Silmarillian (P) by JRR Tolkein

This might be the only book on this whole list that could possibly get a second shot someday. For anyone who doesn't know what the Silmarillian is, it basically was a prequel written after the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy by Tolkein which was meant to serve as a history of Middle Earth up until said adventures. I had read the Hobbit in middle school and I really enjoyed the LOTR movies, so freshman year in high school I decided to pick up the Silmarilian and see how it all started. Bad move. From what I recall it was pretty much like reading a Roman history textbook written in the 1950's with the additional bonus of a bunch of names and places that were impossible to pronounce or differentiate for that matter. I only made it about a third of the way through before all the levels of gods and floating tree islands and whatnot confused the heck out of me and I gave up. Now that I understand a bit more of Tolkein's mythology and with the current Hobbit trilogy, I may give this one a retry at some point. Who knows, maybe my college-edemecated mined can figgur dis one owt better duh seqund tiem. Hey, and if not, I've always got Hoot I can read!

3. A Hope in the Unseen (P) by Ron Suskind

Ok, where to begin with this gem, where to begin... Anyone who happened to be a freshman honors student at Florida State in the fall of 2007 will remember this book. Someone that year had the bright idea of forcing all the incoming freshman honors students to read this book over the summer before they started classes. You could think of it as a summer reading project that middle schools and high schools assign... only, college isn't middle or high school, and universities don't do that. I suppose the idea was that by reading this book somehow it would promote discussion amongst new students and "unity" amongst an incoming class. It was a commendable initiative, really, but considering that it had never been done before and has never been done since, you can see how it turned out.

Here's where it gets funny. Not only did all the freshman honors students have to read the book (and maybe write a paper, I can't recall if we had to do that too), but as part of the Honors Colloquium we all had to take our first semester, they actually had the author come and speak. Now it was pretty obvious that they expected a big crowd for this event (who knows how much they paid for him to come) as the powers that be arranged for the event to take place in Ruby Diamond auditorium instead of our normal location. For weeks they reminded us about it and built it up to a monumental degree. The only problem? For the class we were allowed to skip whichever two presentations we wanted. Apparently I wasn't the only person who didn't like the book, as almost nobody went. Let me put it into perspective: this wasn't the first presentation of the year people could skip, nor was it one of the last two (when anyone that hadn't skipped would've used their remaining absences). No, this was dead in the middle of the semester. The day after I was curious to find out how it went (I hadn't gone obviously) and I struggled all day until I finally found someone who had actually showed up. He told me there were maybe ten or fifteen people there. Wow. So what made this book so bad anyways?

Well, first off it was a semi-autobiographic novel (which leads me to believe the author must be a real you-know-what, as you'll see). The story follows this poor kid (really the author) who lives in the ghettos of Washington DC and attends a really bad intercity school where almost no one graduates and nobody goes to college. He's not like the rest, of course, and dreams of going to college. So he works really hard and makes good grades, all the while dealing with adversity. Not too bad of a book eh? Well, I agreed with you... up until about two thirds of the way through. You see, eventually there comes this critical point in the story where the kid gets the admissions letters from the colleges he applies to. As it turns out, he gets into two of the universities, but not just any universities, Georgetown and Maryland! Woo hoo! That's pretty awesome! He's going to be the only person in his class to go to college! The first person in his family to go to college and not just to any college, I mean, those are excellent opportunities! He even got scholarships! He should totally be super excited, right? WRONG. Happiness is not the word that describes his emotional reaction; nor is joy or thankfulness or any other positive expression. Instead he's angry. That's right. He's bitter and angry and resentful that he didn't get into an Ivy League school. Say whaaaaaaaat? Come on man, I just read over two hundred pages of this inspirational story for THAT? Oh man, and he gets worse the next couple of chapters, pretty much revealing himself to be a self absorbed pompous, well, you catch my drift. I literally dropped that book with less than thirty pages left. Eventually I think he got into Brown, kudos to him, but what a terrible book. (Geez, the next two must be really bad!)

2. Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger

Another assigned high school reading that I did not enjoy (don't worry, there were others I loved including my all-time favorite book, The Great Gatsby). Catcher in the Rye seems to be pretty divisive: you either love it or you hate it. I obviously hated it. For one, I'm not a fan of books with strong language. I mean, I can tolerate some language and I can just ignore things like that, but to me it was just too much in this instance. Combine that with the really strange tense the entire story is written in and the disturbing subject matter (abuse, the main character's affections for his sister...) and I just did not like it one bit. It gave me this really weird nauseous feeling the entire time I was reading. On the positive side though, it inspired me to write a short story about an impoverished middle school aged kid who found a couple dollars lying around at the fair, spent it on a goldfish, and was later beat to death by his drug-addict mother when she discovered what he had done.

1. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

I honestly don't even know what to say. I really don't. I'm a fan of the distopian genre. I enjoy movies like I, Robot and Logan's Run and the Terminator series which portray a far less than perfect future. I found the very distopian and ultra-depressing Nineteen Eighty-Four to be thought provoking and impossible to put down, but this thing, this was just unspeakably bad. Forget the nausea I experienced with Catcher in the Rye, Brave New World made me want to flat out vomit. From the subject matter (hallucinogens, genetic breeding of different "levels" of humans, etc) to the writing style to the story, I hated literally everything. It makes me sick just to think about it. I respect anyone who has a different opinion, but to me, this will always be the worst of the worst.

So what do you think? Disagree about anything? What are the worst books you've ever read? Let me know in the comments or on the new Blog Intersect page!

-JT

Wild Card Wednesdays: K Freaking Pop

Do you know those moments when you just KNOW something is going to happen, sort of like when people are drawing straws, you just KNOW you're going to get the short stick? Ok, that's how this week's Wild Card Wednesday topic is for me. The moment I saw the suggestion for K Pop (a musical genre which I loathe, and a couple of my lovably impish friends know I loathe) I just knew that fate was going to select it for me. I just knew it. Thanks calculator random integer application, thanks.

So before I have an episode of syncope stimulated by my overflowing joy, let us officially begin.

Originally I was going to introduce this post with some cleverly humorous "dictionary definition" I expected to find on the internet. Unfortunately, my research led me to this article which announced the addition this past fall of the word "K-pop" to the Oxford Dictionary. Therefore, something that was meant to be funny once again backfired in my face. (Hahaha, I see you laughing over there my Rocky Mountain friends, aka the ones to blame for this post.) I would post the actual dictionary definition as now apparently officially exists, but just the thought that it's in there depresses me too much. Instead I'll give those of you who perhaps do not know what K-pop is, my own definition:

K-pop (pronounced: Kayyyyyyyyyyy Pawwwwwwwwwp), derived from the saying: oKay my head is about to POP from this crazy music:

"South Korean musical genre which makes the statement: Hey, we can sing almost as bad as the American pop industry while making music videos just as weird as modern Japanese culture."

Maybe I'm being a little too harsh and insensitive, maybe I secretly love K-Pop and will never admit it to my Western friends, or maybe the entire global K-pop phenomena is being orchestrated by an alien race bent on taking over the world with mind numbing beats and semi-unintelligble lyrics (well... to English speakers anyways...) Just think about it though, which of those options sounds more plausible? Just think about it...

 I vote for the aliens (just look at the music video pic on the left) and Mr. Crazy Hair agrees, so you know it's a fact because everything on History Channel's show Ancient Aliens is factual or else it wouldn't be history, duh.

 Now, while I'm not a fan of the music at all (I don't care for techno, auto tune, or pop, even American pop, and K-pop is essentially those three things) I do have to admit that some of the music videos are worth watching solely based on their entertaining strangeness. Check these two out and you'll see what I mean:

Both make me laugh because of their goofiness, and slightly creeped out at the same time... It's difficult to decide which emotion is stronger than the other. I guess the point I'm trying to get across is that tastes are quite different all across the world, and even if you can't enjoy some aspect of a culture in the way that others do, you can still find a way to enjoy it. For me, I enjoy laughing at the weirdness of K-pop and just how bizarre that whole phenomenon is to me. Truly, it is an alien experience.

Of course I can't conclude what is hopefully my only post ever about K-pop without at least mentioning what is by far the most famous song of them all and also the only one I mildly enjoy (mostly because of its dance): Gangnam Style. The ironic bit is, I could be wrong, but I believe it's also just about the only K-pop song those same friends Out West I keep referring to don't like. I guess we can't catch a break.

I'm not about to link the same music video everyone's seen, but here's a spoof of the song set in North Korea which is even better than the original:

Well that's all I've got, I hope you enjoyed! I want to give special thanks to my wonderful friend Christina who recommended K-pop as this week's topic as well as Sam and Josh for all being awesome sports and letting me poke a little fun at them (I know they think I'm equally crazy for my football obsession). In retrospect it was actually a lot of fun to write this post and I may or may not have watched an hour's worth of K-pop videos in the process.

Until next week! Don't forget to submit more suggestions and who knows, maybe yours will be chosen next by fate!

-JT

Toss Up Tuesdays: Medical Education

I've been asked so many times about where I am in my medical education and how med school and residency works, that I figured I'd just go ahead and quickly explain it here for anyone who has wondered about it before. Ok, so here's how it all works:

During undergrad, a student who wants to become a doctor has to take a slew of classes that medical schools generally required their applicants to complete. Collectively this track of courses are referred to as "Premed" and students taking those courses are often called "Premed Students".

MYTH #1: Premed is a major.
In reality, at most colleges and universities Premed is not actually a major. I believe there was a time when it was fairly common for there to actually be a Premed major, but nowadays in most places it's nothing more than just a list of courses that medical schools require applicants to fulfill before they can be considered.

Premed coursework generally consists of some meshwork of math, biology, chemistry, physics, and possibly psychology. My personal Premed track included: Trig, Algebra, Calc I, Biology I and lab, Biology II and lab, Chemistry I and lab, Chemistry II and lab, Organic Chemistry I, Organic Chemistry II and lab, Human Biochemistry, Physics I and lab, Physics II and lab, and Brain & Behavior (psychology).

MYTH #2: All medical students major in a science.
Because of all the biology and chemistry, most Premed students do go on to major in the biological or chemical sciences since it's simply easier to do so, but it is not a requirement. I'm the perfect example of this: my majors were Geography and Environmental Studies, both from the College of Social Science. I have friends at the med school who majored in everything from English to Construction. It's definitely less common though.

The next step in continuing medical education is to take the MCAT and to achieve a competitive score. Most Premed students who plan on entering medical school directly from undergrad (this represents a majority, but not a very large majority) take the MCAT sometime between their junior and senior years. A competitive score is considered to be about a 26 and above depending on where you're looking to go (schools like Harvard, UCLA, and Yale would be substantially higher).

Then comes the actual applying to schools and waiting to hear back. The schools review all the applicants and weed down the potential pool of students based on grades, MCAT scores, and application factors such as their essay. They then invite a percentage of those applicants to come to their college and interview for admission. It can be a very daunting situation as so much hinges on the responses to some very difficult questions posed by the interviewers, but should a student make it through that and be selected, all of their years of hard work have paid off! And earned them even more years of hard work...

MYTH #3: Medical schools is extremely difficult.
True.

Medical school is unlike any other difficult challenge I have ever undertaken in my life. I cannot even begin to describe what it's like and the amount of hours that go into studying for it, so I won't try. Instead I'll focus on the order of things. Med School is 4 years long. All colleges are a little different in the structure of their coursework, but they all generally include the same classes.

At FSU specifically, the first 2 years are oriented more towards bookwork and the second 2 are more clinical in nature. Although I do need to mention that the school does do a good job of making sure that we (1st and 2nd years) spend at least about 4 hours a week out in a clinical setting to gain experience. Classes include Human Anatomy, Neurology, Microanatomy & Histology, Physiology, Medical Biochemistry, Microbiology, Pathology, Pharmacology, Medicine & Behavior, Health Issues, and each semester, Doctoring.

At the end of 2nd year, each medical student has to take Step 1 of the USMLE Board Exam. It's an insanely difficult 8 hour exam, which you have to pass to continue on. Since I haven't taken it yet and it really scares me as it approaches this summer, I'm going to stop talking about it in 3... 2... 1.

At FSU, students leave the main campus in Tallahassee and spend their final 2 years at a regional campus to which they were assigned. (This involves a lotto process which takes place early 2nd year.) Regional campuses include: Pensacola, Tallahassee, Daytona Beach, Orlando, Sarasota, and Ft. Pierce. There's also something called "the Rural Track" which allows students to spend their 3rd year over in Marianna. This is what I'm doing. Those students then have the option to spend 4th year at any of the regional campuses. (I'll be returning to Tallahassee.)

As mentioned before, 3rd and 4th year are much more clinical in nature. During 3rd year, students rotate between blocks (mostly at a hospital) during which they work with doctors in various primary fields of medicine including Internal Medicine, Family Medicine, Pediatrics, Surgery, OBGYN, and Psychiatry. After this, they take Step 2 of the Boards and then proceed onto 4th year which is more elective in nature and can involve taking coursework at various medical facilities across the country. At the conclusion of 4th year, they take Step 3 of the Boards... a two day, 12 hour written and 4 hour practical exam... can't wait for that one.

Towards the end of 4th year, students go through the match process which is a national process of pairing students with residencies across the country in the field of medicine they wish to practice. It's a complex system which involves a national database, a computer, USMLE scores, preferences, and a whole host of information that somehow spits out a card, and that's where you go. Obviously the better the scores and other factors, the better the match. Students who don't perform too well don't get matched, and honestly, I'm not entirely sure what happens at that point...

Anyways, residency varies based on what field a doctor is entering. I believe the shortest are just 2 years while the longer ones are 4-5. During this, residents (as they are now called) work in a medical setting and receive pay (although not nearly as much as they do once they're finished) all the while completing even more coursework and taking various exams. After this, some residents who wish to specialize in a specific field (for instance, GI or Cardiology) must complete an additional clerkship, which involves even more training and more years.

MYTH #4: I actually have time to be doing this.
Um... 

Head spinning? Mine too... and you know what that means, I've completely run out of time for this and have to get back to studying. I hope this cleared up the whole process for anyone who ever wondered!

-JT

Movie Mondays: Les Miserables

This week I want to take a stab at a movie which has been garnering all the acclaim for the past month or so: Les Miserables. Before I delve into things however, I'd like to thank my good friend Josh for the suggestion. Originally he suggested it as a topic for Wild Card Wednesday, but truth be told, it fit perfectly for today and I couldn't wait that long. (By the way, if you like history, science, and anthropology, check out his blog Nearly Noteworthy, you'll generate a couple new cortical synapses in the process.)

The movie poster (left) was no doubt a nod to the iconic Broadway musical adaptation (right).

Since Les Miserables is still a fairly new movie and some people haven't seen it yet, here's how I'm going to do this: First I'm going to give a very, very brief plot summary which is completely suitable for anyone who has not seen the movie and doesn't know what happens (and doesn't want to know yet!). Then I'll give my general thoughts about the film, again, which anyone can read without spoiling anything. After that however, I'll go into a little more depth which you might not want to read until after you see the movie (don't worry, it'll be clearly marked).

That out of the way, let's begin.

The Plot

From the late 1700's until the mid 1800's France was a place of turmoil and unrest as revolution after revolution swept across the countryside. Most promised social and political change, but often did little: replacing kings with emperors and nobility with aristocrats.

Les Miserables (the film adaptation of the critically acclaimed Broadway musical which itself is based on the famous 1862 novel by Victor Hugo) is set in early 19th century France (mainly Paris); a time which was noted for its political upheaval and class disparities. While this issue of social inequality is certainly present throughout the entire story, it merely serves as a backdrop to the primary narrative which follows the tale of one Jean Valjean (a recently paroled convict) as he tries to move past his mistakes of the past in hopes of a brighter future. For the sake of those who haven't seen the movie yet, I won't go into much more detail than that, other than just to say that grace and love are central themes and persist throughout.

My Critique of the Film

Leaving plot behind for a moment (we'll return to it in just a minute), I want to address the film for what it is: a film. That is to say, I would like to discuss its acting, cinematography, etc. As those of you who read my review of Skyfall know, I can be harshly critical of a movie which I feel is lacking in development or fails to live up to expectations. Les Miserables did neither of those things. In fact, it surpassed any preconceptions I had (which truthfully were rather vague given my limited knowledge of the novel or the musical) and impressed me with its ability to captivate the audience with empathy while at the same time generating complex metaphorical depth.

The tempered tones in which the movie was filmed helped to generate a feeling of intimacy which was only counteracted by the acts of obtuse humour generated by the likes of Sacha Cohen and Helena Carter. Yes, that's right, "Borat" is in Les Miserables. That might come as a surprise, and it sure did to me, but once the initial shock wears off, it makes perfect sense. Their lovably detestable characters provide the necessary comic relief in what might otherwise be seen as an all-too acutely realistic melodrama.

Surprised? So was I. They were so frustrating... and yet, so funny.

For the most part, the acting was entirely engaging. As anyone who knows me knows, I do not know actors and actresses AT ALL. Heck, I'm constantly having to use IMDB as a resource for names here, but one thing I can tell you is that Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe went heads and tails above any other roles I have seen them portray to date. Hugh Jackman, in part due to his attire and in part due to his excellent portrayal of Jean Valjean was nearly impossible to discern or to remove from his character nearly the entire film. Russell Crowe was more recognizable, possibly because the personality of Javert was so fitting to his own, but he certainly did no worse off.

Out of all the superb acting and filming, truly the only disappointment to me was the acting of Anne Hathaway. Now don't get me wrong, I really like Anne Hathaway and I thought she was nearly perfect in The Dark Knight Rises, but somehow her character in Les Miserables just came off as a bit... stilted, and dare I even say phony? Perhaps it is the sad result of excellent acting by Jackman and Crowe, but I just did not feel that she held up to the weight of the rest of the film. Fortunately, this was only but a small aspect of the tale in its entirely and did not wholly subtract from the rest of the movie, but it was noticeable and therefore I notice it.

Eh.

I'll end my critique by saying that the technique they used to film the actors actually singing the music, rather than dubbing as other musicals have done, was just as all the public raved. I thought it did an excellent job in eliminating that aspect of musicals which has bothered oh so many people for so long. I not being one of those people, have never minded too much, but I must admit that in the end Les Miserables felt must less juxtaposed in that regard. I give credit to whoever thought for the actors to actually sing in a musical.

IF YOU HAVE YET TO SEE THE MOVIE AND DO NOT WISH TO SPOIL ANYTHING, STOP READING NOW.

My Interpretation

Les Miserables was one of those unique opportunities as far as a movie goes for me: I truly knew next to nothing about the plot, the music, or really anything with regards to the subject matter of the story going into the movie. Of course I'd heard of the Broadway musical and the book, and I knew that it was set in France during the time of revolution and upheaval, but really I knew nothing but that. Thus I entered the theatre as mostly a blank canvas: minus my biased guess that it was likely to be a large a piece of class propaganda. Of course I was wrong: while the struggles of a very impoverished French peasantry does play a role in the form of setting and modus operandi for plot movement, it does not overwhelm nor subtract from the film's ultimate message as I feared it would. Instead, Les Miserables is about something far more resounding and eternal: grace.

That's right, Les Miserables is a story of grace. I won't rehash the entire plot since I assume everyone reading this has already seen the movie, but I will take a moment to hash out my own thoughts upon its very complex and intricately woven plot.

Many people view Les Miserables as a sad tale in which Jean Valjean is ruthlessly pursued and denied happiness by Javert, and by Fate. He dies as does Anne Hathway's Fantine and even Javert: none of those characters receiving the reward in life which perhaps they deserved by good merit and character. Instead, all three find themselves perpetually on the short end of the stick; continuously placed in situations where no decision is easy and no result is without it's consequences later on. I, however, left the theatre with the sense of joy and not sorrow as so many (including my girlfriend, yes I'm picking on you) did. I saw an immense happiness in the way which the story concluded and the resolution which was brought about. To me, the love and happiness and future which Cosette and Marius receive at the end of the film is the culmination of all the struggle and sorrow and pain which Jean Valjean and Fantine endure. All that is denied to their benefactors is given unto them, out of love, and because of love they are blessed to live in peace.

Redemption came at the price of sacrifice.

Something else I absolutely loved about this story: there is no true "bad guy". Sure, it's easy to villainize Javert for his unrelenting, unwavering determination to bring Jean Valjean to justice without any sympathy or remorse, but in reality there is nothing truly evil with the man. Simply put, he is the law, and as such, he only abides by the regulations which society has placed upon him. He does not stray from those strict boundaries even for a second, until the very end, for which he must pay the ultimate price. It's a fascinating accomplishment to evoke such dualistic emotions from the viewer at once: hate for Javert's stubbornness to duty, and admiration for that same exact quality. Honestly, I could write an entire thesis on this paradigm, but unfortunately I must continue along.

An officer of the law, Javert only did what his duty demanded of him.

 

So how did I feel about the story? What did I think it all meant? My personal interpretation may be wildly different from your own, but in many dimensions I saw this to be an allegory for the duality of God. Ok, maybe I seem a bit off my rocker, but hang with me for a minute. It became increasingly clear to me towards the latter third of the movie that Javert and Jean Valjean represented two sides of the same coin, that is, the two aspects of God: justice and forgiveness (or grace). Neither could be faulted in their course of action throughout the film. Just as Jean Valjean was given grace at the beginning of the movie, he gave unto others throughout its passage, even to his pursuer. Javert on the other hand, was excruciatingly true to the justice. Once a condemned man, he viewed Valjean as always a condemned man: short of the perfect expectations placed upon him by the law.

This is the conundrum: without the law, there can be no grace; but without grace, all fall short of the perfection required by the law. That is the duality of God. God is both perfect in His law AND in His grace. So how is this seeming contradiction to be resolved? Well, in the Bible, God gives up His own life in his Son Jesus Christ, and too, in Les Miserables, Javert willfully gives up his own life as the price to pay for extending grace to Jean Valjean. I feel it is a beautifully constructed metaphor which is rich in imagery and yet easily overlooked. Regardless of whether you agree with my interpretation or not, it cannot be denied that the religious undertones run very deep in this film/musical/novel.

Grace's ultimate price is death.

So there you have it, per a request, and an absolute pleasure for me to write; my review of Les Miserables. It's a longer film, but it's entirely worth it and I'd recommend it to anyone.

So what did you think? Did you enjoy the movie? What did you think it was about? Leave a comment below or on Facebook with your thoughts!

-JT

Seeking Sundays: FTTF Returns!

Last year I felt a weight on my heart to start a blog devotional called Faith Through The Fire as a way of keeping myself accountable with staying in The Word and also as a way to reach out to friends and family, sharing what was on my mind and what God was speaking to me. I did a pretty good job of maintaining it for a while, but ultimately like most blogs it fell by the wayside. While a busy life and school were both contributing factors, I think the main cause was that I simply got bored keeping up with a biweekly blog in which every post required deep meditation and research. Don't get me wrong, it was a good idea and it certainly opened my eyes to a lot of things, but the fact remains that the last post was back in July.

Which leads me to today. I really like the layout of my old blog and its exclusive dedication to my walk with Christ. However, the devotional way it was originally written which included a quote from an important figure in American history which I then tied into a topic, is a little tedious for me to keep up with. Therefore, I've decided that I'm going to once again post on that blog but in a new format. Since keeping up with two blogs simultaneously is extremely difficult, here's what I plan to do: Sundays that I discuss more philosophical topics, ramblings, or just things in my life, I'll only post here on this blog. However most Sundays when I write in a more formal style, I'll post over there and then provide a link and brief summary here on this blog. I'll still continue to link this blog through Facebook since it's my primary.

If you've never seen Faith Through The Fire before, I strongly encourage you to check it out. I personally believe it's a great devotional resource which delves into a wide range of topics and scripture. Next week I'll start my new series of posts there, but go ahead and check it out and see what's already there. Old devotional topics there include: coping with the feeling of being overwhelmed, being perfect, following God's will, seeking wisdom in God, forgiving others, getting through challenging times, being a person of Godly character, changing for God, continuing the Christmas spirit, making mistakes, avoiding self deception, managing anger, and growing from failure.

I hope you find it useful and that God is able to use it to speak to you!

-JT