Jim -1:Flu -0

Alright, lets first deal with the 20 lb. elephant in the room. My every other day blog concept is not exactly going as planned. For this I am sorry. My output has definitely increased, but I am falling a bit below the expected return. I, of course, have several excuses lined up for why this is not my fault. Okay, I kinda lied there. I only really have one excuse. I was stricken with the dreaded Spanish Influenza for the last few days. Though the mortality rate is upwards of .16%, I was able to barely escape death... thus the title of this update. I am actually right on target with the number of blog posts, given that I do one tomorrow. I just haven't kept strictly to the scheduled regimen of every other day. But, come on, of all you people out there who kinda know me, did you even expect me to do this well. I was pretty sure I would be dropping the every other day thing by about January 5th. All I can say is I was sick, I beat the flu, now I'm going to stick out my tongue and make that raspberry noise at mother nature.

For some added content, I thought I would transcribe an old piece of my own that I stumbled upon. I recently found three separate, but equal, poems that I had written while waiting for the Student Promotion Committee to decide the fate of my life for what I believe was the first, but may have been the second time. For those of you who have not experienced the joys of attending medical school, let me give you a brief rundown of what the SPC is. Basically, if you have any academic trouble in school, you are forced to go in a plead your case in front of a panel of approximately 20 doctors who are all heads of the various teaching departments. They are, for the most part, quite harsh and cruel to you and make you feel like you are a true piece of shit because they were all able to get through med school, why can't you. They all totally disregard the fact that the science has grown exponentially since they even had to take a class and we are falling into a more and more absurd quagmire of an educational system. Also, and this is just a guess, I think at least half of them assume that you are cheating on tests even if there is not a lick of evidence to prove this. Needless to say, a visit to the SPC is quite stressful. I found it quited my soul to write some poetry while I waited. I now present for your viewing pleasure, those exact poems.

Untitled #1
Taken from the womb
Burst forth forcefully
Propelled out of time and place
No ability to survive
No desire to continue
The last great hope
Of a failing nation
Ripped to shreds
As if to bed
The great beasts
A moment of deliberation
A lifetime considered
Then expelled
As so much trash that has come before
The wasted recycling of a future past
Nothing was learned
Nothing was saved

Who comes forth to speak
A mess of a messiah
Torn from the gloss of magazines
Found in the newspapers of time
Bleeding from all limbs
A hyperstygmatic
Unable to control his hateful lashings
Or to state his true desires
Rocked by a new light
Colored unlike the spectrum
To which most eyes are blind
But to which all must eventually see
No end in sight
For the urban plight
That sprawls before our bated breath
A wish for some, but wished to death
Secrets of a mourning flight

Untitled #2
And so at last we part our ways
Driven by an ego inflated with hydrogen
Explosive, deadly, and unable to survive
The harsh spark-filled environment
Torn down by the Templars of an ancient way
Let go to be lost
Among the vast sea of anonymity

The last one is just a fragment. I believe that I started on it and then was called back in the room to be told that the SPC reached no conclusion and that I would have to come back before them in another month. Yes, they put me through this torture and grilling and waiting just so I could do it all over again in another month

Untitled Fragment #1
But to the hills a cry rings out
Take all that you see and it will be yours
But act quickly, for there is danger about
From the likes of junkies, drunks, and whores
A telltale sign of future....

Yeah, that's where it ends. I should really try and finish that one... or at least reuse the third and fourth lines. I always liked those ones. That's it for today, folks. Hope the new year is treating you all well. I know I've been having a blast.