Weekend Review: Splatter Painting, Step 1 Score, & KonMari'ing

It's been a pretty uneventful week, which is just fine because it's hot and smoky (forest fires) and I really don't feel too motivated. I'm feeling more organized with my radiation oncology reading and summarizing though, which is good because I started the week feeling overwhelmed with everything that I didn't know. I have to remind myself that I'm a week in and no one is going to expect me to know the details of Z11, AMAROS, MA.20, and a gazillion other studies...that's what the next four years are for, so as long as I keep up with reading a bit each day I think I'll be all right for the time being (seriously though, it's so hard being in your own specialty and wanting to do well but feeling that you know nothing!).

Here are some good things from the past seven days:

1. splatter painting -- I have to share how our group splatter painting turned out after the canvas returned, stretched and glazed:
   
   I think it looks pretty stellar, no bias. This half is hanging in our residents' room and the other half we'll give to our program director this week (who I'm sure will be thrilled to have to find hanging space for a large piece of amateur artwork).
2. DQ -- I stopped by for a milkshake with the other second-year resident after work a couple of days ago. We try to catch up when we're on different rotations and ice cream across the street from the hospital seemed like a good option.

   

   too hot for non-frozen food

3. Step 1 score -- I was surprised and so so relieved to find out this week that I passed Step 1 (not respectably, don't care).

   

   Oh Biochemistry -- who didn't see that coming

4. tidying -- Yesterday I finished reading Marie Kondo's The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, which I started over a month ago but had been neglecting since. I won't attempt a book review (Back To Her Roots has written a better one than I could ever hope to), but I will say that the book makes some good points about tidying -- with an emphasis on purging any possession that doesn't "spark joy" -- and is a worthwhile read if you can tolerate the more eye roll-inducing concepts (e.g. personifying one's possessions, somatizing the purging process by developing diarrhea or losing weight). Most important, it did inspire me to spend this whole morning tidying my apartment -- which definitely needed it!
5. Madame Curie -- As for what I'll read next, I was excited to find a library copy of Madame Curie: A Biography by her daughter Eve Curie. I think biographies are fascinating and the couple that I've read on Marie Curie have been my favourites yet. There is so much I could say about why I admire Marie Curie -- but I won't bore you...at least not in this post.

   

   (http://farnsworthartgallery.com/madame-curie-a-biography-by-eve-curie-reviews)

   It'd be easier for you to see for yourself  -- check out Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie by Barbara Goldsmith. If you're impressed by that, track down a copy of Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout, by artist Lauren Redniss, which is the most uniquely artistic book I've come across (and I used to work in a library). And finally, if you don't have a favourite scientist (yet) and are looking for a more general biography to start off with, I'd recommend The Scientists: A History of Science Told Through the Lives of Its Greatest Inventors by John Gribbin -- it reads like a story but teaches you so much! If anyone else also enjoys science-/medicine-related reading, I'd love to hear your recommendations :)