NYC, Cape Cod, and Monica Crowley

It has been a few busy days since I have posted. This past Tuesday I went to NYC with my girlfriend Jacki . We took the train from Stamford to Grand Central. Well.. before our first stop in Harlem, this Satan-worshipping scary metalhead dude walked through our cabin, pulled some sort of gun(real or fake?) on the girls behind us and asked, "Do you want to be shot?." The girls didnt scream or anything. They didn't even say anything to the conductor. The guy just kept walking. When we pulled into Harlem 2 cops ran by the train with their guns drawn. They ented the cabin behind us (where the freaky dude was now) and basically beat him up and dragged him out of the train, with guns drawn the whole time. Eventually we came to Grand Central Terminal and the conductors wouldn't open the doors because the police wanted to question everyone. They were ripping up the seats trying to find the gun because apparently it wasn't on that punk. I don't know how long they kept the train closed because Jacki and I snuck out of the train. We didn't feel like wasting our day in NYC being stuck on the train.
One we left the train we went to see the Xmas tree at Rockefeller plaza. The tree was pretty nice. I liked the light shows and music they had around the tree more though. The building around it had bright snoflakes that light up separately to the upbeat of the xmas music they were playing. Pretty darn neat. Here's a shot of most of the flakes lit up at the same time on the side of one building:

After that we were kind of cold and looking for a place to go inside. Right after this picture was taken -

- this teacher that had brought her class to see the Rockettes asked us if we would like to see the show for free. It was starting that second. So we saw the show and it was great. After the show we hopped on teh subway because we needed to go see one of Jacki's friend perform at a comedy club. The show was great. Jacki's friends did a full body masterbation on stage, lol. One of the comedians was hilarious. If you get a chance to see Al Lubel on tv or in a show, I would recommend you go see him.

Before I start writing about Cape Cod, I wanted to share with the world that I went bowling on Thursday and bowled my highest score: 212. woohoo, and I choked on the last ball and got only 1 pin after a series of strikes.

Ok, so Cape Cod. Jacki lives there. I went to celebrate a little pre-xmas xmas. We exchanged gifts and had dinner. Jacki got me a nice ring and a medical spanish guide :-). Her parents, who own the Old Manse Inn, also got me some neat gifts. On the way back for the cape, I was listening to the radio and somehow got listening to this political talk show - The Monica Crowley Show.hhoooollllyyy ss@^%$#%$it this woman pissed me off. I am not especially tolerant of people who are incredibly arrogant, so this woman had my blod boiling a little. I thought I was pretty moderate in my political views before I heard this woman speak, but afterwards I realize I am quite liberal. She kept talking about immigration and how she things all foreigners should be deported, yadda yadda yadda.. what's next - ghettos for foreginers and concentration camps soon after? She then talked about the liberal biased media. Ok, she has a point, most journalists are smart.. I mean.. liberal. I thought she was fine for pointing that out until she started talking about the Media Research Center and their awards for the worst reporting of the year. Wow. Talk about biased. There is not one conservative view on there as bad reporting or a bad qoute. Their worst qoute of the year includes Rosie saying that radical christianity is just as dangerous as radical Islam. I agree with that qoute. Monica's views make me cringe. I wish I was a better write so that I can coney just how awful I thought this woman was. If anyone has heard this woman speaks and either agrees or disagrees - leave me a comment about it.

Well I will end this long post for now. It's going to be a busy couple of weeks with some exciting stuff happening. First, of course - XMAS. Then the 26th I leave for Vegas and the grand canyon with Jacki and her fam for a week. After that I start my new job in a new emergency department since I am quitting the busy one and working at a smaller one now. I'll keep everyone posted. As always I leave with a picture -

Mansfield Hollow Phototrip

I went to a local state part today hoping to get some good shots, but the day was overcast and teh colors were very blah. I ended up mostly walknig around and talking with people as they walked by. I talked to one dude(another photographer) for about a half hour. So the trip was sort of a dissapointment. I may go back tomorow though because I never got to the dam and clock tower, distinguishing landmarks of the sit. Maybe the lighting will be better. For now, Ill upload a picture of the little kid that was trying to hide from me. His grandpa said it was ok to take his picture.

3 down, 1 to go

Only 1 final left this semester and then I can go home, relax, do Xmas, and then go to Las Vegas for a week. Tomorow at 6pm I take my Psychology final. Shouldn't be too bad, so I didn't do much studying today.

Instead I spent the evening trying to figure which lens I want to ask my parents to get me for Christmas. I either want a very short lens (~10mm) or a telephoto zoom (something like 70-200mm.) If anyone has any suggestions for some great lenses, LEAVE ME A COMMENT. Actually, even if you don't have a suggestion, leave a comment. Seriously, I want comments. Well, I should have a good post on Friday because I am planning on randomly driving through Connecticut and trying to find some good pictures to take. If anyone from CT or MA knows some nice photo spots, let me know in the COMMENTS.

Alright, so if you guys haven't noticed I added a few google ads to the site in non-important places. I want to see if google will actually pay me eventually if I get enough clicks. We shall see.

Sorry this wasn't a very exciting post. I'm going to post two pictures today. One is another part B&W/part color picture of my dog. The other is a pic of my dad hunting. Both were taken on the same day about 3 weeks ago. New pics will come this Friday after I come back from the trip.

Last thing - I don't proofread my posts and I always have typos. Let's look at it optimistically and say it makes for a more interesting read.

The sharpness of either of these photographs is not spectacular, especially the top one. But I like make parts of photos black and white, and the color of the moss on that day was awesome. That is a natural color, believe it or not. If not, ask me to send you the original RAW image.

Updates on the Med School Application Cycle

Since I want to focus on both medicine and photogaphy in this blog, I thought I would write an update on my cycle so far. I applied to 8 MD and 8 DO medical schools through the primary applications. I withdrew from 2 DO schools and 2 MD schools even before turning in secondaries. I was rejected from George Washington University. I received 3 DO interviews so far: UMDNJSOM(new jersey), Nova Southeastern(florida), and UNE(maine). From those 3, I was accepted at NSU and waitlisted at the other 2. I have a "better than great" shot to be accepted to UMDNJ according to the director of admissions. I don't know where I stand at UNE because I didnt ask since it is my 3rd choice out of those 3. So after all that I withdrew my applications from 4 more DO schools.

I am waiting to hear word from 5 MD schools: Temple, Drexel, Jefferson, Uconn, and NYMC. I am not very optomistic that I will receive an interview from any of those due to my crappy gpa - http://mdapplicants.com/viewprofile.php?myid=5806. If I received an interview from Drexel, Jefferson, or Uconn they would give NSU and UMDNJ a run for their money. I think I would rather attend NSU or UMDNJ over Temple or NYMC but I want to see if I can land the interviews anyway.

So I will be left with making a decision between NSU and UMDNJ in the end. I am going to visit both schools in the near future to see which one I would rather attend. I think I would be very happy at either school. I will leave explaining what DO is and why I choose to apply to several DO schools for a later post or you guys can google "osteopathic medicine."

As always, I will leave with a picture, but since I have not taken any pictures in the last few days I will post a pic of Jacki, my gf, that is a couple of years old. She is wearing my shirt. She is absolutely stunning and I love her very much.




hmmm.. the colors seem a little funny... when I have some more time(not finals week) I will fix that and repost this picture. Until then - enjoy!

Finals Week

Well, it is the eve of the first day of finals. At UConn that means that we just had Midnight Breakfast. To any of you non-uconn people, midnigh breakfast is an event Uconn puts on on the Sunday before finals where they give away free food and have entertainment. It is always a pretty decent time aside from having to wait in long lines with thousands of other students.

I have 2 exams tomorow. Both are pretty easy tho, so that's why I am writing on this blog instead of sleeping or studying. I have polisci and linguistics exams tomorow. Then I can actually buckle down and start studying for my physiology and psych exams on wednesday and thursday.

Last random note is that I went snowboarding on friday. Winter is offically here... even tho it will be in the upper 40s all week... o well..

I haven't had too much time/energy to take any pics the last few days so I thought I would post a random pic from Ground Zero I took a few years ago. It's not very good, but I felt I should post something and keep the tradition alive. If I cared I might have cropped this picture a little for better composition.

I'm sick :-(

Well, it has been a little while since the last post so I thought I would throw out an update. I have a cold I am trying to beat off with a full arsenal Cold-Eeze, humidifier, menthol vapors...etc. I looked up the research on Cold-Eeze by the way, and it appears it actually does shorten the length of a cold. Most over the counter meds like that are pretty b.s. so I was surprised.

Next week is finals week here. I got a couple easy ones on Monday and a physio final on Wednesday and a psych final on Thursday. Not that bad. So I am going snowboarding tomorow up at Okemo as long as the high winds don't shut down the lifts. Woohoo!

As always, I will leave with a picture I took recently. This one is from the other day when it was really foggy here around campus. Enjoy!
Don't mind the lame "Jakub Photography" across the middle. I put that in there so that people can't rip off my wonderful photos as their own and sell them for millions, lol.

Boo UMDNJ

Well, after a decent Thanksgiving, I had a true Black Friday. My top 2 choices for medical school are UConn and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey School of Osteopathic Medicine(UMDNJSOM) <----really really long name. I doubt I'll get much love from UConn, so my hope was riding on UMDNJ. Well today I got a wonderful letter saying I was deemed an "acceptable" applicant but not quite good enough for an acceptance right now. Time to take a seat on the Alternate List. My reaction : AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!. Damn you, UMDNJ, for not recognizing such a stellar future doctor. Looks more and more like I will be attending the Nova Southeastern med school in Ft. Lauderdale. I realy, really liked it there, but it will be bit more expensive than the other 2 schools would be. Oh well. It may be a better fit for me anyway. On the bright side, I bought myself a brand new pair of snowboard boots - woohoo! Im really excited to hit the slopes soon. I'll leave this post with one of latest photographic endeavors - the panoramic shot.
By the way - who noticed that I mispelled the URL to this blog!

The Beginning

Well, I decided to start my first blog. I have absolutely no blogging experience, nor do I think that I am a particularly good writer. I just want a place where I could post some pictures, talk about the medical school process, and maybe comment on other interesting issues. At the very least, this will be another tool added to my procrastination arsenal.

For starters, a little about myself. I am a Polish immigrant and a senior Molecular and Cell Biology major at the University of Connecticut. My brother, Filip, and girlfriend, Jacki, also attend UConn. I have recently begun the medical school application process. I applied to mostly osteopathic(DO) medical schools, and only a handful of allopathic(MD) medical schools. That will be something that I will dwell into deeper in a later post since the medical school process will be the central theme of this blog.

Another theme will be photography. I recently invested in a digital SLR(Canon EOS 350d) and a couple of lenses, so I should be taking a lot of pictures in the near future. I am an absolute beginner, so don't expect anything amazing for quite a while. For now, I will leave this initial post with one of my first photoshoped images of my beloved dog Ikar.