Yesterday in between studying I finished John Grisham's The Associate.  I thought it was good in a fast and easy reading kind of way.  When I was younger I would not have liked the dangled endings, not at all.  I liked my books tidily cleaned up at the end - resolution was important to me back then.  These days, I don't mind it at all. I think it might be because of several reasons.  One, life rarely has tidy endings.  Being more maturer than I used to be, I can allow that untidiness to follow me into my entertainment and I don't get bothered by it so much.  Secondly, I have a much stronger sense of participation in the creative process that the author shares in writing his or her story.  By that I mean that if the main character gets dangled at the end I can come up with and settle upon a more agreeable resolution in my own mind and accept it.  So maybe in the end I'm not so much un-bothered by it as much as I am simply extending the writer's idea and ending it on my own terms.  If I care to think about it much at all.

I am studying neuropharmacology today, along with how to conduct a GI-focused history and exam.  I'll have an opportunity for a practical test on the latter in about a week and I'll need to practice for it.  Neuropharm is interesting, today's topics include antidepressants, sedatives and anxiolytics.  I'm going to also delve into cardiology, too.  Hopefully.  I'm shooting for about 10 hours of study today.  I've stopped going to classes except for when it's required.

Right now my goal is simply to stay current with the lectures from the day before (always trying to catch up to yesterday) and then catching up on Friday's lectures on Saturday, with time left over every day for review.  Time to study...

Wow! I just finished Anathem by Neal Stephenson. I had to skim the last hundred pages or so because I am kind of running out of time, what with 3 exams coming up but I couldn't put it down. After such a long and detailed run up to the end, the end felt rushed. I supposed that, as the author points out through one of his characters, that is a defining characteristic of 'emergent' situations and maybe that's all well and good. Well, it may have had something to do with my skimming. I enjoyed this book of his much more than any of the others I have tried to read. They've all been entertaining but this was much better, sort of a maturer version of his writing. After this I am tempted to check out the baroque cycle, but not for awhile.

I have a GI (gastrointestinal) test on Friday, a Surgical skills assessment (must get 90%!) on Friday and a pharmacology test a week from today, so I'd better get to work.

2nd year med school is much harder than 1st year but it is a lot more fun. Er...enjoyable...or...something. I think it is that the material is more about what I will do when I get into the clinics rather than leading up to that material, which is what 1st year is about.

I found out that I love tying knots. It's very therapeutic. You should try it!!