Katie and I spent a week driving around the Scottish Highlands in search of treks, castles, and whisky. The trip was mixed. The highlands were just as beautiful as expected, though the attractions requiring trekking were sparser than expected. The long history of Scotland and its castles were intriguing, especially since I’ve been coincidentally listening to hundreds of hours of a podcast about English history. Visiting the origin of scotch whisky, my preferred liquor, was educational and tasty. The driving, however, was rubbish.
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The Hazards of Learning Pool
Teaching myself pool has been treacherous.
I mean billiards pool, not swim pool or investment pool. It’s kind of a dumb, impractically niche thing to practice, but there’s a beat-up old table in my New Haven apartment building, so whatever. These past three months have been a hard lesson in the hazards of sports and self-education.
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End of Residency Email
It’s the end of my radiology residency at Mount Sinai Hospital. I spent my final week reflecting upon my case log from residency, cases mined from four years of dictation, trolling the neuro list, and asking people for fun cases. That’s 1900+ cases of varying educational value, personal significance, or pure visual spectacle. Here are some highlights:
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A Short Mexico Trip
Three days in Mexico City (aka CDMX, Ciudad de México) and three days in San Miguel de Allende (aka SMA) for a wedding served as testing grounds for my new Sony a7C and my itty bitty lenses. Meanwhile, Katie and I scoured the place for tacos.
Thoughts on My New Camera
The Sony a7C is essentially a full-frame mirrorless camera system crammed into a tiny cropped-sensor chassis. The size was its primary appeal. Paired with the miniature kit 28-60mm f/4-5.6, its weight (509+167g = 676g) it’s lighter than my old Canon 24-105mm lens alone (795g). It’s so small I can zip it up inside my jacket or toss it into a bag without worrying about dedicated space or damage from its own weight.
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Absence of Style Can’t Exist
This year, catalyzed by buying my wedding tuxedo, I had an epiphany: I can’t have no style.
Until recently, I wanted to opt out of worrying about clothes or having a style. This was a philosophy engendered by growing up in our immigrant household: impress with your cleverness and actions, not your looks. Who was I trying to influence as a kid anyway, and why invest in clothes I’d outgrow?
It’s not that I had no style. There is no such thing as no style, which I realize now. My parents efficiently clothed my brothers and me, so I adopted the style of an immigrant son. I was given Taiwanese hand-me-downs, free graphic tees, bargain bin cargo pants, and big jackets. Everything was oversized, and I didn’t think twice. The clothes were comfortable and I liked having pockets everywhere for mechanical pencils and a flip phone.
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2022 in Retrospect
2022 was wild. For me, it was filled with big changes, some surprises, and a fair share of challenges. Let’s start with the good news first.
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The Death of my DSLR
Last week, while vacationing in Lake Tahoe, Katie and I were involved in a serious car accident. While stopped at a red light, we were rear-ended hard by a semi truck, propelled forward into a major intersection, and t-boned by an SUV.
Despite the severity of the crash (our car was very much totaled), Katie and I miraculously emerged with comparatively moderate injuries. We are still mired with said injuries and dealing the aftermath of the accident, but life goes on for us.
Meanwhile, my new DSLR (Canon 6D Mark II from 2020 and 24-105mm II from 2021) was annihilated, crushed in the trunk so tightly we couldn’t even extract the memory card.\
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Indiscriminate cruelty of human error
Note 12/28/24: Publishing this previously private post as a backdate
Katie and I were on a short but pleasant two-day vacation to Lake Tahoe. We enjoyed a nice long lakeshore day hike, a beachfront dinner, and a gentle morning kayak paddle. We were doing a quick drive toward our last vista. While stopped at a red light, Katie and I were rear-ended by a semi truck going about 35 mph downhill, propelled forward into a major intersection where we were t-boned by an SUV.
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