People: My family, friends, and all the people I interact with. I love to be around people, to hear their stories, and to enjoy their presence. I love to hear the kids riding bikes in the neighborhood, overhearing conversations on the bus, and seeing families walking in the hospital.

Places: Our townhouse is wonderful. I love my commute by bike or bus. I love the trees out our windows. I love my memories of Italy. I enjoy the mountains, beaches and historic places of the world.

History: For my ancestors, especially my grandparents and parents who sacrificed much to make my life so enjoyable. For soldiers, revolutionaries and public servants who have created and defended my rights and opportunities.

Knowledge: For my teachers. The authors of the books I’ve read. For scientists and physicians who have given neuroscience and neurology. For each bit of knowledge which I have been able to remember.

Faith: In God. In my family. In good people that are trying to make a difference. In the hope and promise of future generations.

I am grateful for every moment.

Two weeks ago I flew to San Francisco. I spent a couple days there before flying back to Tucson to pick up the kids from my in-laws and fly home. It was an eye opening trip. Thursday due to flight delays I was in airports for seven hours. I read an entire chapter book- in one day. That hasn’t happened since before Scotland was born. Friday, Tom was at his neurology conference all day, so I had the day solo to explore the city. I woke up when I woke up, did some yoga, had a cup of tea while I ready my scriptures, and got ready. I bought a MUNI pass- jumped on the subway and headed out. I walked along the high-end market stalls in the Ferry Building, lingering to savor the samples of $12 bars of chocolate- without having to wipe faces, and hands, and clothes. I stalled to take in the diversity of mushrooms- no one complained. I took pictures without being pulled off balance. I didn’t buy breakfast- I didn’t want to waste time, and no one was begging me to. I explored the Embercado area, then took a street car north so I could climb the Filbert steps. I got off a stop early, and jogged the rest of the way, because I could. A goofy smile was smeared across my face. I couldn’t help it. I was in San Francisco, the sun was shining, the air brisk, fresh! I had an entire day to myself. I felt both stressed and exhilarated. How to make the most of it?! I climbed the steps, stopping from time to time to turn around and take in the view of the bay. I side tracked and walked down skinny alleyways between houses, admiring the enormous succulents, and new-to me plants. I imagined life in those homes- etched into a cliff, overlooking the bay. I had pleasant flashbacks to a trip to Cinque Terre, with it’s similar cliff dwellings, and steep narrow streets. I climbed all the way to the top arms swinging, mouth smiling, mind free. Wait, arms swinging, such a strange sensation. It was at this point in the day, an hour in, that I realized how strange it was to have NO one else to consider that day. My whims would guide the day. No time would be wasted discussing the merits of this or that decision, no energy spent trying to choose based on the others’ perceived desires. I would just go, do, enjoy. At that point I let go of any stress or pressure and decided to just take it all in. I took the elevator up Coit tower. I leaned out the windows (far enough that the attendant had to warn me!) feeling the fresh ocean breeze, and taking in the gorgeous 360 of San Francisco. Such a gorgeous city. The details of the day are less interesting than the feeling I had- such freedom, such abandon. I took busses the wrong direction, and walked too long in ordinary neighborhoods. I didn’t do things in the best order, and I ate nothing but granola bars until 5:00pm. But there was no one but me to worry about, no one complained, demanded, begged. The change was shocking. And yet I wasn’t gleeful about the absence of my children- in reality I melted every time I saw a child, and teared up a bit when a 2 year old darling with blonde curls danced around in Coit Tower. I wished Tom was there to share the view, and found myself focusing on things the boys would find interesting- double decker bridges, the variety of public transit options, decorative dragons. But I was also surprised by how often I felt freed by the opportunity to actually pursue something that interested me- to linger in the garden, to examine the succulents, to read the plaque, without consequence. Tom texted around 5:15- “Where are you!?” My day alone had come to an end. An exciting dinner date awaited. I jumped on the side of a cable car, holding on to the bar, and resisting the urge to lean out and start singing. An older man, asked me curiously, “Do you feel comfortable there?” “Oh. I feel great!”

Just wanted to let everyone know that I am finishing medical school in May (...finally!), and then will be moving to Seattle (woohoo!) for a five year residency program in Pediatric Neurology. I will be working primarily at Seattle Children's hospital and at the University of Washington. The program involves two years of general pediatric training, one year of adult neurology training, and two years of specialized pediatric neurology training. I will be continuing some of my research in biomedical engineering, though time will be at a premium (have you seen those mountains?!) It is "my first real job" (n.b. no more need for "eternal student" jibes!).

We are so excited to move to Seattle. We found out Friday in the residency match; before Scotter opened the envelope, we knew that I had a job somewhere, but not where. We are a little nervous about the cost of living, but we aren't the first family to live in Seattle on a budget. Kjirsti's parents live a few hours from Seattle, which will allow scotter some much needed space for running around. Kjirsti is excited to develop a new Voice Studio in Seattle. Scotter is excited about all the puddles. And I'm excited about, well, everything!

I love watching Scotland learn how to move about. Today, while Kjirsti and I were working on some projects, we noticed that Scotter had started walking with his new toy! It is inspiring to watch him overcome his fears, to do hard things, and to trust. youtube.com/shorts/2l…

Hope

All treatments in medicine have potential benefits, but also potential risks. Prescribing treatment requires some degree of hope that the patient will be part of the group of people in which treatment benefits outweigh the damages. Patients receiving prescriptions will find no benefit unless they have at least enough hope to follow through on the doctor’s recommendation. Ultimately, the hope may be realized, and the patient’s ailment relieved. However, sometimes hope is in vain: the side effects are intolerable, the therapeutic effect is insufficient, or the surgical procedure is disastrous. The unpredictable nature of medicine means that, regardless of best intentions, hopes will not always be achieved. Instilling “hope”, therefore, requires communication of some level of doubt, to ease understanding when treatments do not go well.

Doubt

Yet, I have seen doubt damage patients. They stop a blood pressure medication after 2 days because “It’s not working”. They tell me they didn’t pick up a medication because they “didn’t think it would work”. As humans, we like quick fixes, which make treatments like antibiotics so popular. We are fatigued by insidious diseases like diabetes and obesity, which require constant vigilance and daily sacrifice. Doubt overwhelms many patients, and they stop trying. In their most difficult times, they need increased hope, that each effort increases the likelihood of more tomorrows. It is our job as medical practitioners to explain risks, but also to instill hope sufficient for our patients to get the most out of the rest of their life.

Amazing to think we have been going to space for nearly 50 years!

playingforchange, a group who is trying to promote peace through music, made the following video.  It touched my heart, hopefully it will touch yours. “This cover of Stand By Me was recorded by completely unknown artists in a street virtual studio all around the world. It all started with a base track—vocals and guitar—recorded on the streets of Santa Monica, California, by a street musician called Roger Ridley. The base track was then taken to New Orleans, Louisiana, where Grandpa Elliott—a blind singer from the French Quarter—added vocals and harmonica while listening to Ridley’s base track on headphones. In the same city, Washboard Chaz’s added some metal percussion to it. And from there, it just gets rock ‘n’ rolling bananas: The producers took the resulting mix all through Europe, Africa, and South America, adding new tracks with multiple instruments and vocals that were assembled in the final version you are seeing in this video. All done with a simple laptop and some microphones.” [gizmodo]

After a long a stressful week, I unfortunately came down with a bit of laryngitis.  However, this movie made me smile, so I’d like to share.  It’s called Validation:

As Kjirsti already blogged, the big highlight of the week was probably skiing. I was talking to friends at work, and we all decided it would be great to go skiing together. It was wonderful to cut through the icy snow, and get a nice workout. I had a great faceplant early on, which would have been documented if I wasn’t the photographer. Cleveland is so great this time of year!

Happy New Year!

Kjirsti and I had a great time in Washington with her family.  I love all of our wonderful nieces and nephews.  They have such spirit!

Kjirsti got me perhaps the coolest gift I’ve ever gotten.  It’s called an arduino, and it has to be the geekiest thing I’ve ever owned.  But it sure is cool.  I made a timer for our camera, and put together a time lapse video of our front yard:

I came across this beautiful time lapse series from our earth.  We live in such an amazing place! túrána hott kurdís by hasta la otra méxico! from Till Credner on Vimeo.

A few hundred people in the edmonton, canada area witnessed a beautiful fireball/meteor crash through the atmosphere.  Luckily, a canadian policeman had his dashboard camera pointed in the right direction.  Here it is: The meteor is thought to have weighed about 1-7 tons before entering the atmosphere. On entry, it was roughly 5 times the brightness of the full moon. It likely landed near the Alberta-Saskatchewan border. Edmonton Journal

Two interesting things.  I put together a pdf of the newspapers I typically read: The Day After Someone with  more time did this one: Headlines And here is a great article in Time magazine that captures the worlds reactions: TIME And a great worldwide slideshow: Huffington Post Now when we travel, we don’t have to act like we’re Canadian!

What an amazing thing to be able to vote.  Even with all the economic problems we are having, we have such a wonderful country.  Earlier this week I came across a couple of powerful pictures of the drama in congo: Congo I wish there was more we could do for Africa. I’m grateful that we as a country have to make a decision between this guy: Obama and this one: McCain and not: Omar or: Mugabe I’ll be following the election tonight here: google_election Let’s hope the best one wins!

A lot of people have asked me to put up a video from our wedding. Micah Brown made a gorgeous video for us, better than we could have ever expected. And lucky for you guys, it’s only about 3 minutes long.

This is probably the best video I could find of the launch. From our view, it was AWESOME in person, but probably wouldn’t be more than a speck on the camera. Here’s my summary of the launch. There were a ton of people on the beach, which created a really great atmosphere. Most people were in their 20’s-50’s. There were a lot of families, and a lot of guys who had always dreamed of seeing a launch (like me). There were some absolutely incredible binoculars, and camera’s with super zooms. So we were only out there for ~ 2 hours. They went through a bunch of checks, and then we didn’t hear anything for about an hour. And then, all of a sudden, they started the countdown. 10, 9, 8…… Smoke was pouring out of the rocket…..7,6,5…..you could barely see the shuttle, there was so much smoke….4,3,2,1,Lift off! And up comes the rocket! It quickly accelerates, and gets higher and higher every second. Everything has been silent up to this point, but you start to hear the rumble of the rockets. The sound grows louder and louder each second. Then we saw the shuttle roll, and begin to shrink in size. Through binoculars, I watched the solid state booster rockets separate and return to earth (they reuse them). Then the shuttle became a beautiful star, visible in daylight. It was simply incredible. Within minutes, they were in space!

I just received this email from a friend today:

The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act has been gaining momentum and working its way through Congress. The strong bipartisan legislation (S. 625/HR 1108) grants the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) effective authority to regulate tobacco products, protect children and promote public health. This vital public health legislation has the support of 57 Senators and 223 Representatives and is ready to be considered for full vote. Please show your support for this important legislation by signing our petition today. It asks that Congress move quickly and schedule time for the full U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives to debate and vote on the FDA tobacco bills (S. 625/HR 1108). Each day the Congress doesn’t act, more than 1,100 kids will become regular, daily smokers. One-third of them will die from a tobacco-related disease. Unless Congress acts to protect our kids, Big Tobacco will continue to target and entice them with products like candy-flavored cigarettes

As you might have seen in Kjirsti’s lovely photo mosaic, we went to Houston.  I found the trip so inspiring, as I think texans really do a good job at trying to enjoy life.  I had a great talk with a fellow in the library, who’s retired, and studies “drilling mechanics” in his free time.  Many people in houston gave me the impression that they were happy with life. And then, this morning, I came across a lovely little animation, that I hope you all like.  It’s a age-old lesson, but one I always have to remind myself of. Enjoy! 

Okay, just one more. Star Wars, according to a 3 year old:

We had a fun time this afternoon going through Kjirsti’s photojournals of her childhood.  It’s incredible to me how little I actually know about her.  She’s full of stories, surprises and hidden talents.  It caused me to wonder how little I really know about all the people around me, even though I spend time with the same people everyday. I attended a priesthood leadership meeting this evening, and was really inspired to alleviate my utter lack of leadership skills.  I really enjoyed the emphasis the counselor made on helping people set their own goals, rather than setting goals for them.  Kjirsti and I often set personal goals, and sometimes, set goals together.  Often, I try to set goals for her (such as making cookies more often, or watching more movies with me) but her personal goals are nearly always more helpful to her.  I think a good leader helps a person recognize their own potential, and support that increase in effort, rather than enforcing the leader’s standards. For all those LDS readers, check out new.familysearch.org It’s incredible! You need your membership number and confirmation date.  They have linked the historic sites in our ancestors lives to google maps, and you can track where our great-great-great grandparents were born, got married, and died.  They really did a great job. Did you know that the italian prime minister lost a no-confidence vote last week?  Italy no longer has a prime minister! I’ve been following the primaries in my free time lately.  I am not really completely satisfied with any candidate in particular.  Here’s my current views on the republican candidates: Romney:

Pros: Good example of family life (I know, Nixon was tauted the same way).  I agree with his moderate view on pro-life, and can understand his flip-flopping.  I agree with him on many moral issues.  If we really are in a recession, he has demonstrated economic prowess.

Cons:He seems a little too slick.  I know that is superficial, but he seems more like a CEO than a  president.  He wants to place bugs in american, islamic mosques.  He wants to expand Guantanamo.  He has spoken out on expanding citizen surveillance.

Cons: He seems like a thug.

Pros: McCain believes in making the treatment of prisoners’s more humane.  He does not support Bushs runaway increase in citizen surveillance.  He’s got an amazing life story.  I feel like he’s the only candidate that represents himself honestly.  It seems like I know what I’m getting with him. Cons: The world is changing, and I’m not sure he is keeping up. He supports the expansion of the death penalty.

I know, I haven’t blogged on here in a while; Kjirsti is doing such a great job keeping everyone updated, I haven’t felt like I had much to add. However, much to my loss, she is out of town for the week visiting the fam, so it’s my turn. The biggest news for me is I just presented my first poster. Kinda silly really, but it was an interesting way to present everything I’ve been doing for six months on a 3 foot by 4 foot poster. They printed me off 2 accidentally, so I guess I have one to ….ummm…. I don’t know what to do with an extra poster. Any ideas? Here it is: Not bad, eh? So, I woke this morning with a list of ~50 items. It’s Saturday, and I didn’t want to have one of those terrible satrudays that is more stressful than weekdays. So, per my mom’s advice, I made a game of it. I know, sounds childish, but I used dice from the game “settlers”, and used the dice to decide what I did next. You roll between a barbarian and a castle; on barbarian I did something I didn’t want to do; on castle, I did something I liked. I’ve scrubbed the toilet, fixed a doorhandle, emailed my PhD committee, but I’ve also completed a nytimes crossword puzzle (with help; those are hard!) played a game of computer chess, went for a run in 10 degree weather, and went to the library. Turns out, it was a wonderful day. All comes down to the mindset I guess. My friend Steve got me hooked on Inspector Morse, a british mini-series. Not sure if any one else out there has seen it, but it is really good! Our public library has nearly every one. I also started the Wicked audiobook. Some of it is quite crude, not what I expected, but it is starting to shape into quite an interesting story. Hopefully it will continue on this new vein. Just wanted to warn any of you who wanted to start listening to it.

I just liked this video so much. Go Devin and Phil!

Kjirsti has been doing such a good job at this blog, I thought it was about time I added my own thoughts. My work has been going quite well, I’ve been working with monkeys and computers, a hysterical mix. It is surprising how smart they are. You just need to be two steps ahead of them in everything. I love feeding them bananas and apples. They sometimes store the food in their cheeks when they are satisfied, and want to save it for later. Oberlin is still a lovely place to live. As you’ve probably already read, we’ve been having a great time cooking, decorating, and setting up this website. We like how our sister in-law changes her theme every season, and we’d like to try the same. I met an astronaut a few weeks ago, and it really inspired me. I’ve always wanted to be an astronaut, and though it’s more likely I’ll become the next tsar of Russia than become an astronaut, it inspired me to not write off my dreams that easily. Did you know the average astronaut candidate is ~40? I was surprised. My friend Brady informed I’ll probably have to part with my appendix and spleen. I say, “Good Riddance!” I’ll try to add a picture to each entry. This comes from the Astronomy Picture of the Day . It is an annalemma; a picture of the sun taken every few weeks at the same time at the same place. This one was made in Turkey, and if you look closely, you can see an eclipse. Pretty cool! I love you all!