Germy

For the past three or four weeks I've been reading  a treasure trove of 90's skateboarding lore and 'where are they now?' type of things called the 'chrome ball incident.'  Over the years I've perused this blog once in awhile over the years but I got caught up in it and have been working my way backwards. I'm reading interviews from 2011 right now. I've become fascinated by these interviews of people who were heavily involved in skateboarding during the same time periods I was.  Bryce Kanights at the China Banks in 1986. Photo: Grant Brittain In 1986 I had a passing fancy in skateboarding. Some kids at school were skateboarding, and they wore Vision Street Wear shoes, which I must admit I coveted with the desperation of a fourth grader who wanted to be cool, and liked.  I wanted these shoes for so long, well, 2 years seems like a really long time in grade school.  The kid also wore this Def Leppard shirt that I thought was the co...

ACGME and people in graduate medical education send a lot of mixed signals when it comes to physician wellness for residents. Much of it is program and facility specific. Some places do better than others, but at some point during this year I've had this growing awareness of larger forces at play. Retreats and local, ground level provisions are necessary and appreciated; but our day to day experiences expose us to the worst that humanity has to offer, contrasted, with varying frequency, the best humanity can impart. A strategy has to be built to deal with the desperation and apathy we are faced with. Frustration levels are high with everyone, most of us, and I mean everyone in the hospital -- from the patients, patient's loved ones to all that participate in the success of a hospital as workers; clinical and nonclinical. Every single one of us has a valid reason for our frustration. We fight for people in an inhumane, rigid yet whirling machine that forces us to feel like com...