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  • Oh, the tragedies that make me write songs. [song here]

    http://www.myfoxdfw.com/dpp/news/teen-dead-in-parking-lot-crash

    Tragedy.

    It affects everyone in some way, whether or not you knew who it happened to.
    I never did meet this junior who went to my school, but I will keep him, his friends, and his family in my thoughts.

    I felt inspired to scribble down some lyrics, and here they are.

    I’m still recovering from a terrible sinus infection and my voice is just coming back, so bear with me. I’m still missing a good half octave off of my head voice and more in my falsetto. This song was originally written to be sung with piano, but it’s a gigantic hassle to move my mic and stuff outside to record a song that’s still unfinished, so I picked up my guitar and fingerpicked the chords.

    You’ll want to pause the playlist on the side before clicking play.

    -bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbafawfowieughergjs.

    Lyrics w/ annotations after the Continue reading

  • Dear M5W Staff,

    Dear M5W Staff,

    I would like to thank you all for helping make my internship this semester a life-defining experience. Being on the floor has been most rewarding and I think I have learned more here than I have anywhere else.

    Although I am not allowed to help very much as a high school intern, I appreciate all of the opportunities that I was given to help out in the smallest ways; from helping reposition patients to helping push a patient downstairs to going to different floors looking for materials, I valued any excuse I was given to make somebody’s life just a little bit easier. I can honestly say I enjoyed doing everything I was asked to do.

    There are no words to explain how much I appreciate the patience and warmth of the staff members that allowed me to shadow them: to be able to answer nosy questions from an intern while working a job that can be very stressful is a respectable feat, and I thank you all for it. Because of everyone’s willingness to share their knowledge with me, I feel that I have been able to further my development as a person.

    Sincerely,

    Bryan Chen

  • “Endings are never easy.”

    “I’m not sure why it matters to me so much how things end here. I guess it’s because we all want to believe what we do is very important, that people hang onto our every word, that they care what we think. The truth is, you should consider yourself lucky if you even occasionally get to make someone–anyone–feel a little better.”

    -bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbawefhawilhbnirsedjf.

    I just did an entire blog post (including the title!) using excerpted quotes from the Scrubs episode “My Finale, Part 2″ :]
    I like to think to myself that through my semester of internship(s), I was able to make some people’s lives easier and maybe make some people feel a little better.

  • For English class.

    (4:21:08 AM) Bryan: I wrote a random story
    (4:21:13 AM) Bryan: naming one of the characters Jacob Edward
    (4:21:15 AM) Bryan: and his mother Bella
    (4:21:22 AM) Bryan: and having them all assassinated in a hospital room
    (4:21:26 AM) Bryan: by ninjas.
    (4:21:47 AM) Bryan: I’m going to end it with “And that, yer Honor, is mah side of the matter.”

    And so it was.

  • Dealing With Asian (Chinese) Telemarketers. Success!

     

    All Asians who have ever received a phone call from these traumatizing telemarketers should know how viciously presumptuous they can be. In the past, I have had to resort to speaking English and Japanese to them to confuse them so that they would think that I don’t speak Chinese and hang up. Even at that, they would continue to call me every night during my dinner time (while we don’t eat dinner as a family, I still eat right after I get home from the hospital). At one point, I resorted to telling these intrusive callers that I was going to talk to my lawyer about their calling me though I am registered on the no-call list, or that my lawyer was on the other line, or that I WAS a lawyer. They continued…. how fearless.

    But then, I discovered my secret weapon: Asian culture!

    When I answered the phone to hear a woman speaking in Chinese (I gotta give it to her, her phone voice was nice…): “Hello, this is iTalk Global, how are you today?”

    Oh, it was on. Our conversation in Chinese went something like this:

    Me: “Sorry, miss, now is definitely not a good time.”
    Telemarketer woman (TW): “Oh, is it not? That’s fine. I just want to share this new deal with you…”
    Me: “No, you don’t understand, this is a REALLY bad time.”
    TW: “Alright. I’ll call you back later, sir..”
    Me: “I’m sorry, I have to study. I study a lot. I have lots of hard tests. I cannot talk to you about this on the phone for a while.”
    TW: “Oh, you’re a student?”
    Me: “Yes, ma’am. I am a student.”
    TW: “You study hard?”
    Me: “Yes, I do. I am very busy.”
    TW: “How long are you going to be studying for, sir?”
    Me: “A long while. Until I graduate.”
    TW: “Oh, I see. I suppose I’ll make sure not to bother you again. Go back to studying!”

    *click*

    After I hung up the phone, I fell out of my chair laughing: even the Chinese telemarketers have the stereotypical Asian disposition toward putting studying and academic work as a first priority!

    That totally made my night.

    -bbbbbbaowroejajgjdbaweiofasdjhahahahahahefawkejb.

  • Haircut (with a picture!)

    I’ve been waiting for this haircut for a while now. My hair was starting to annoy the crap out of me.

    Haircut – $18 + $2 tip
    Sweater vest – $20 from Express Men on Black Friday
    The look on my face – priceless!

    -bbbbbbbbb.

  • Oh, you’re going to love this: USC application “Quick Takes”

    So the USC application has these things called “Quick Takes” where the applicant is supposed to fill out whatever comes to mind in order to help the admission committee “get to know” him/her better in a “lighthearted” way. The problem for me is that I can’t stop thinking about the ridiculous things that I can put just to test how far the “no right or wrong answer” statement will stretch. Here are some examples of answers that flitted through my mind while I was on a search for more appropriate answers.

    Please respond to each of the following in one sentence or less; a single word may suffice. These questions have no right or wrong answers.

    *Describe yourself in three words:
    sarcastic  slacker  sleepless

    *Favorite food:    
    African land snail

    *Favorite fictional character:    
    The Punisher. (Alternate answers include the anonymous narrator of Fight Club, Big Bob with big titties from Fight Club, Victor Mancini from Choke, Batman, the Joker)

    *Greatest invention of all time:
    The portable electric vibrator, satisfying women circa 1880.

    *What do you like to do for fun?
    I master debate. A lot.
        
    *Role model:
    Jenna Jameson

    *Favorite book:
    Everybody Poops Everyone Poops. My bad.

    *Best movie of all time:
    Gigli <== now ain’t that great?

    *Favorite musical performer/band, or composer:
    Günther, music artist who performs the “Ding Dong Song” and “Teeny Weeny String Bikini”
       
    *Dream job:
    very successful straight porn star

    Yep. That’s USC material right there.

    -bbbbbbbbbawefwalhwweuiohroiejttoomuchabb.

  • “What has influenced your decision to pursue a career in health care/medicine?”

    By far, the most significant influences in my decision to pursue a health care career have been my experiences on both sides of the health care system: I have been a caretaker for a patient as well as an intern for doctors, nurses, and pharmacists.

    My experience caring for my father who fought an eleven month long battle against brain cancer before passing away was a major influence in my life spurring me to pursue a career in health care.  Accompanying my father to all of his appointments with physicians, surgeons, and therapists as well as living out of the hospital when he was an inpatient exposed me to a wide range of careers in health care. Being in such close contact with the health care field and seeing its direct involvement in my father’s welfare inspired me to pursue a future in which I will be able to work to directly improve the health and quality of life of others.

    During my senior year of high school, I was selected for a special Professional Internship Program in which I held two internship positions at Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas in the Jackson Internal Medicine Clinic and Main 5 West inpatient floor. It was during these two internships that I felt my future solidify before me as I realized I loved being in the hospital and helping improve the health of others more than anything else. Working with pharmacists, doctors, and nurses on the other side of patient care showed me the hard work that is involved in every step of patient care: instead of feeling anxious about a future full of demanding work, I found myself loving the fulfillment and joy that comes from the convalescing patients.

    When I found myself looking forward to hospital internship hours more than anything else in my daily plans, I realized that I do feel an affinity with being in the hospital. I find myself in love with the care and painstaking attention that the great nurses and doctors that I have been able to work with show toward their patients.

    Took me all of 10 minutes to write and hastily submit to the online scholarship application. I was right under the 350 word limit too. :P
    Best part of this whole thing: I didn’t have to stretch the truth at all for this short essay!

    -bbbbbbbawoefaiooijbfjs.

  • Very few people will get this song.

    This is a cover of Say It’s Possible by Terra Naomi. I haven’t heard this song in ages, but I suddenly had an urge to play it. So there it is.

    The annoations on the video are useful as well as the comments in the sidebar that I have transplanted below:

    I’m sure almost everyone has forgotten about this song. It has been so long.

    Why yes, that is me doing last second tuning on the guitar at :15 ish seconds.

    No I did not warm up. Yes, I am sorry.

    And yes, I was trying to remember/figure out what the melody is WHILE singing. Heh.

    Overall, I think it went as okay as any song that I haven’t really heard, much less performed, in the last couple years. You’ll have to pause the playlist to listen.


    Lyrics:

    Say It’s Possible by Terra Naomi

    I see the lights are turning and I look outside
    The stars are burning through this changing time
    It could have been anything we want
    It’s fine, salvation was just a passing thought
    It was just a passing thought

    Don’t wait, act now
    This amazing offer won’t last long
    It’s only a chance to pave the path we’re on
    I know there are more exciting things to talk about
    And in time we’ll sort it out
    And in time we’ll sort it out

    And though they say it’s possible
    To me, I don’t see how it’s probable
    I see the course we’re on spinning farther from what I know
    I’ll hold on
    Tell me that you won’t let go
    Tell me that you won’t let go

    And the truth is such a funny thing
    With all these people
    Keep on telling me
    They know what’s best
    And what to be frightened of
    And all the rest are wrong
    They know nothing about us
    They know nothing about us

    And though they say it’s possible
    To me, I don’t see how it’s probable
    I see the course we’re on spinning farther from what I know
    I’ll hold on
    Tell me that you won’t let go
    Tell me that you won’t let go

    I’m not alright

    And though they say it’s possible
    To me, I don’t see how it’s probable
    I see the course we’re on spinning farther from what I know
    I’ll hold on
    Tell me that you won’t let go

    And though they say it’s possible
    To me, I don’t see how it’s probable
    I see the course we’re on spinning farther from what I know
    I’ll hold on
    Tell me that you won’t let go
    Tell me that you won’t let go

    This could be something beautiful
    Combine our love into something wonderful
    But times are tough I know
    And the pull of what we can’t give up takes hold

    -bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbhahahabbb.

    I suppose my awesome Columbia interviewer has visited my blog by now, and I hope that it’s not disappointing. :]