Christmas Vacation

For the break I went to Idaho to stay on the ranch. I had lunch with uncle Harold in La Grande on the way over. I spent a lot of time hanging out with family and playing around on the ranch. I spent some time working up a handload for my .270 win. I found a hot 140 grain ballistic tip load that is shooting fast and accurate. I also loaded up some 150 grain elk loads. I also made a duck call on my uncles lathe out of a chunk of willow. I took the reeds and other parts from a plastic duck call and fitted them to my custom call. We were also fortunate enough to have good ice for playing black and blue pond hockey. We played several days including a Christmas day right after dinner. I skied at Bogus Basin on the 27th with my aunt Mary. Other than that I read two C.J. box books and played a lot of pinochle. I am still undecided as to what my new years plans are but I will be in Portland or at Black Butte for the weekend.

I survived

I survived my first term in dental school. I think I may have fared ok. So far we have been in dental school for 17 weeks and we have taken a total of 33 exams. It has been a long and grueling adventure that has been wrought with trials and tribulations. Especially the last seven days while we have had ten exams and two take homes exams. Tonight we celebrate the end of finals and the beginning of our two week break. Tomorrow Skiing at mount hood. Saturday will be traveling to Idaho and visiting Uncle Harold on the way.

Finals Week

This week I had four exams. On Monday I have two take home exams due and two in class exams. Tuesday I have two exams Wednesday I have two exams and Thursday I have one exam. Friday I will be skiing. Saturday on the way to Idaho. The exam total is ten in class and two take homes in the span of seven days. Gotta quit posting and keep studying.

Thanksgiving

I drove home for thanksgiving on Wednesday afternoon. I went to class in the morning and I skipped class in the afternoon. On Thursday we had thanksgiving dinner at a friend house. On Friday we went car shopping for my mother. We also did some other shopping. Today I did work around the house and watched football. The Fains are planning on coming over for dinner tonight and then I am going to head back up to Portland . That will be the end of my weekend. The next few weeks will be very busy with finals coming up. I can't be sure that I will have much time to post in the next few weeks. Have a good day.

The Latest

Last weekend I went to black butte for my friend Andrews bachelor party. We went over on Friday night, drank, hung out, and got rowdy. Saturday we went dirt biking and then came back over to the valley and went to the beaver game. The beavers beat the Washington Huskies easily. Sunday consisted of sleeping in and getting some lab work done. My early week consisted of going to class and and studying for the two exams that I had on Thursday and Friday. On Friday night we had the dental school vendors fair. We got to see all of the companies that sell dental stuff and talk to all the sleazy reps that were trying pitch their product and rip on their competitors product at the same time. They gave us lots of free stuff and there were two kegs for us to drink from. This morning I played in the annual Turkey bowl which is a football tournament between each of the dental school classes. My class lost our first game and won our second game. In the afternoon I drove down to Corvallis where I attended Andrews wedding. After the reception I headed back to Portland where I have been studying and listening to the Beaver beat the crap out of Wazzu. The forecast for tomorrow is rain all day with a slight chance of studying.

This week is finally over

This week is finally over. I just got done taking an Integrative Biosciences exam. It went poorly even though I studied hard. Parts of the exam seemed to be writen in order to trick the test taker more than test knowledge. I am happy it is over and now I can enjoy my weekend. This weekend will be busy getting caught up on all of my other classes and with lab projects. I am going to do a take home exam and wax up a premolar and a molar.

A busy week

This has been an incredibly busy week so I have not had much time to post. I had two midterms early in the week, one in Integrative Biosciences and one the next day in Histology. Studying tied up my entire weekend so no big adventures. I did go out downtown on Saturday night for Ryan Kirkpatricks birthday. As soon as those exams were over I had to get lab work done. I had two crown preps due on Wednesday and a waxed maxillary first molar due today. I am still a little behind with my waxing but I am going to try to get caught up this weekend. I have also started to study for a Monday head and neck anatomy exam as well as do a problem set for IB. The plans for this weekend include studying and a little deer hunting on Saturday morning. The hunting should be good because the bucks are starting to rut.

Opening weekend of Duck Season (east side)

This weekend I went to Klamath Falls for the opening weekend of duck season on the east side. My friend Matt and I left Portland around 2pm in the afternoon and skipped our history of dentistry class to do it. We made a stop at sportsmans warehouse in Clackamas on our way to pick up ammo. We headed over the cascades and picked up Matt's Friend Mario in Bend and proceeded down hwy 97 to Klamath falls. When we got into town we went to the local bar where we met some of the locals. After two hours of sleep we woke up the next morning at 4am to go duck hunting. We were joined by Matt's brother for the hunt. That day we limited out and our best shooting was jump shooting ducks off a canal by our spot. That afternoon I drove down to Ashland to pick up some of my stuff. I headed back to Klamath after a shower and a quick nap. The next morning we hunted the same spot and had better success with ducks coming into our decoys because of the low lying fog. We did not limit out but we did shoot about 20 more ducks. That afternoon we headed back to Portland with a quick stop in bend to drop off Mario. Contrary to popular beleief no studying was actually achieved this weekend.

Weekend one

Weekend One started at three o;clock on Friday afternoon with me skipping my first history of dentistry class in order to drive all the way across Portland to Estacada in order to sight in my new rifle. Earlier in the week i bought a Ruger M77 Hawkeye in .270 win. at Sportsmans Warehouse. Later on Friday evening my buddy Matt( see picture in 2 posts before this one) and I went to his buddy's house in Monmouth where we stayed the night before getting up the next morning to go deer hunting. We saw several does but no bucks. It is still early in the season. Later that afternoon we went to Corvallis showered up, started drinking and went to the Beavers UCLA football game. The Beaver played mediocre until the fourth quarter where they choked and gave up over 30 unanswered points. After the game we hung out with some of my college friends and the went to the bars with some of Matt's friends. Sunday morning breakfast at Sheri's and drive home. Sunday afternoon nap and waxing at the preclinic lab.

Week One is in the Books

Week one of fall term is done. It went by fast and week 2 is approaching fast too. We had a bunch of different classes and each one is a little different. Some of the classes are going to be much more demanding and time consuming than other specifically histology, head and neck anatomy and integrative biosciences are going the most intellectually demanding. I think that dental anatomy is going to be the most time consuming. It is going to take a lot of practice to refine my waxing technique and to build all the teeth out of wax. We also have a few other classes that are only one credit which wont take up too much time. Some of my professors I really like so far and there are others that I don't think are very well organized or are poor lecturers. The classes with poor lecturers and unorganizedly professors are going to be much more challenging. In total we have 21 credits this term. It should not be too bad though. We'll see how week two goes.

Fishing on the Hood River

Went fishing today on the Hood River at the town of Hood River. The only fish that was caught was the nice bull trout that Matt is proudly showing off. In other news the beavers got beat by Arizona State after turning the ball over numerous times. Next week is deer hunting and football in Corvallis.

Pre-Fall Term is Over

Hi Everybody. Yesterday I took a final for anatomy which signals the end of our five week pre-term. Last night, we partied at one of our classmates house in celebration of successfully completing our first term. I think that I did alright in my Anatomy class and I did well in my Oral Diagnosis class. On Monday we start in on the real fall term where we have nine classes totaling 21 credits. We get to start working in the lab with all of the $10,000 in equipment and supplies that we were issued on Thursday. I am thinking about going steelhead fishing this afternoon near Hoodriver. I will post pics if there are any good ones.

Week Three is Done

Week three of Pre-fall term has come and gone. We had our second exam in anatomy and this time I made it into the B range for the lab section. After the exam I went over to my friends Matt's house to eat the tenderloin of the elk he shot and the salmon that he caught last weekend. That same evening the Beavers football team got embraced on national TV by Cincinnati. On Friday after class I played pickup basketball at the gym for a few hours. On Saturday night, I hung out with the neighbors before heading downtown to Ringlers pub to meet some of my OSU friends. The neighbors that I was hanging out with were also down there as well as one of my D-school classmates. I had a great time seeing everyone that I had not seen in while. Today, I went for a run and then did a project for my Oral Diagnosis class.

Labor Day Weekend

This weekend I went to Black Butte Ranch in central Oregon with my friends Ryan and Adam and their family. On Friday night, Ryan and I picked up Adam and his wife Kelsey in Roseburg at 2:00 am and took them with us to their house at Black Butte. It was a surprise to everyone because Ryan and I were the only ones that knew that they were coming. On Saturday, we hung around the house and watched football, and socialized with everyone that was there. We were almost evacuated due to the fire that was encroaching on the ranch. That evening Ryan, Adam and I went fishing on the Metolius river. We all got skunked like usual. Sunday Ryan and I took off early in the afternoon and fished Squaw Creek (Wychus Creek). We each caught fish on hoppers. That evening Kim and Tim picked us up and we proceeded to fish the Deschutes River near Steelhead Falls. The fishing was good with all of us catching several nice size fish. A bead head copper john or light cayhills seemed to be the ticket. This weekend, I decided that I am going to keep a note book and make a record of all of the places that I go fishing. That way I will have a record of where I was and what was working or not working at that time for future reference. I made my first note book entry this evening.

Week Two

Week two started on Monday with CPR certification followed by a brutal anatomy exam in the afternoon. I think the anatomy exam went about as well as I could have hoped for considering how difficult it was. I still have not got my score back yet and I am a little nervous to see how I did. We ended the week with the annual DS1 conference in Cannon Beach, Oregon. We had a great time and got to meet the leaders of our vertical integration teams. My group, the St. Johns Bridge group, seems like a good group of students and our faculty mentor also seem like a great instructor. We had a lot of fun staying at the resort. We were fed exceptionally well and we stayed in very nice rooms. The room that I was in had 3 plasma screen tv's and another LCD in the bathroom. During the day on Thursday, we were bussed out to the resort where we had some intorduction and team building activities. In the evening, we watched the Beavers beat Utah in the season opener. While watching, were were also drinking and socilaizing. After the game the party spilled out onto the beach where my classmates and I continued to drink more and socialize on the beach. We are becoming a tight bunch of students that likes to work hard and to have fun at the same time. I feel like we have the perfect balance of having fun and doing well. This group is going to make life in dental school for the next four years so much more enjoyable. Tonight I am off to Central Oregon to do a little fishing for the Labor Day weekend. I'll post pictures of fish on my next entry.

End of Week One

Today marks the end of week one in dental school. It has been a long week with many hours spent at the anatomy lab. We have our first exam coming up tomorrow and it should be real interesting to find out the testing style of our professor. From what I have heard from the upperclassmen is that it is going to be difficult and grueling. He scores our exams with a negative marking system where you are penalized with negative points for the wrong answer. The amount of material that is covered on this exam after only one week is staggering compared to what could be expected from undergraduate. Besides totally immersing myself in my classes, OHSU hosted a night at OMSI for all of the new students. We got to see the Body Worlds 3 exhibit on Friday night. After the museum, some of my classmates and I went to the bars in downtown Portland for a few drinks. Before my exam tomorrow I have my CPR certification class so I will not have much time to study unlike 2/3rds of my class who don't have CPR cert tomorrow. We'll see how tomorrow goes.

First Day of School

Today was my first day of school at the OHSU School of Dentistry. We started off the morning with an check in and continental breakfast. We then had a three hour orientation from the dean of the school and some of the admissions staff. We learned a lot about all of the forms we needed to sign and the things that we needed to check out. Dr. Clinton talked some about how the program is changing and the new thing that are going on. After the orientation they had a sandwich lunch for us. We also got assigned our locker and our bone box. After lunch we had a two hour anatomy lecture from Dr Benninger followed by another four hours of lab. In lab we broke into groups of 5 and started the dissection of our cadaver. My group was lucky in that our cadaver was in good shape and not very fat. I am lucky in that my group works well together and everyone works hard. We got a long ways on our dissection so we wont have as much to do in the next several days. Overall the first day went well. I like my new classmates a lot and I am going to get a long well with them. I am looking forward to a great year.

Moved to Portland

I have now moved to Portland in order to start dental school at Oregon Health and Science University. I am living in an apartment with a room mate about three blocks away from the OHSU campus. We will walk down the hill to the dental school every day to attend classes . To go to the gym I will walk down the hill to the Portland Sky Tram and I will take the tram to the Willamette water front. It has taken a lot of work to furnish and decorate our apartment. I have almost got all settled in and am ready to start school on Monday. This weekend I am going rafting and camping on the Deschutes river. I will be coming back early in order to attend a BBQ with my new classmates.

Southern California

Last weekend I went to Southern California for a family reunion. We flew on Friday in to Orange County and went immediately to the Angels, Twins game. It was an exciting game with the Angles killing the twins. We saw some nice plays and a grand slam home run. I still think that college baseball is much more fun and exciting to watch. Not only because I have a great team to root for in the Beavers, but because the game smaller is much faster pace. The next day we went down to the beach to watch my cousin run in a jr. iron man competition. We left the competition early so we could drive south to my Grandparents house San Diego. Later that evening we had dinner and a family reunion. The next day we just relaxed around the house and enjoyed the good weather. On Monday my mother and I flew back to home to Ashland. So that was what I did this last weekend.

Life on the Ranch

I am spending the next few weeks living on my families ranch in Southern Idaho. I love it here. I work when there is work to be done and I can fish as much as I please. I have mostly been helping my uncle Dan doing what ever he needs done which includes fixing irrigation pivots, moving water and working in the shop. Frequently, he needs me to help him feed and train his sturgeon. This entails taking a fly rod to the spring pond and catching trout killing them and sinking them to the bottom. The sturgeon will then come right next to the dock where it sucks up the fish right off the bottom. The sturgeon is learning to come towards the dock when we are there. We want to train it to take fish off the top of the water. Anyone with experience training sturgeon is welcome to share their advice.
The bass fishing in the other ponds has been spectacular. They were hitting top water several nights ago and I lost my favorite deer hair bass popper on a lunker that nearly took my into backing before he broke my line and my heart. Last night they were keyed in on black woolly buggers. I pulled eight large mouths out of one whole in the matter of a half hour with only one fly.
This weekend my mother is flying in and we are going camping with Mary and Ed somewhere up by McCall, ID. I am not sure where we are going but I hope the fishing is good. I think I would be disappointed if ther was not fishing at all.

The Beavers are the National Champions

Four month ago on this very same blog I said "...there is no reason that this team won't be in Omaha just like the two previous seasons...". My prediction came true and then some. The Beavers swept through College World Series winning all five games on their way to their second strait National championship. Four of the games were won by five runs or more. They were completely dominant in all facets of the game. Their pitching was dominant, their defense was stifling and their hitting was timely all week long. I was fortunate enough to attend every College World Series game starting on Monday. I saw all of the action from Rosenblatt stadium except for the first three days.

On Sunday the 17th, right after graduation I hitched a ride to the Portland airport where I caught a flight to San Francisco. I slept in the airport and flew out early the next morning to Omaha. I went directly to the ballpark from the Omaha airport. When not at the stadium, we stayed at the West Omaha KOA campground.

On Thursday, we went to the zoo that is right behind the stadium. The giant geodesic dome that is behind right field is a desert environment exhibit at the zoo.

On Friday the 23rd we had the day off from baseball so we went to Lincoln to see the University of Nebraska. The football program at Nebraska is unbelievable. They have incredible fans and unmatched tradition. They have sold out every home game since 1962. There were fans tailgating at Cornhusker stadium in the middle of June while we were there. We were fortunate enough to be able to see the Heisman Trophy room which honors the three winners in Nebraska history. The room has a show and replicas of the actual trophies.

Graduation

I am graduating today. The family and friends have assembled here in Corvallis for the event. We had dinner last night at Michael's Landing and today we are going to walk around campus and have lunch before the big event. Right after is a reception for new graduates at the alumni center. Then it is off to Omaha, NE to watch the Beavers play in the College World Series at Rosenblatt stadium. I fly out tonight and do not arrive until tomorrow afternoon in Omaha. We are camping at a nearby campground and driving back home in a van.

Spring Term

Hi all,
This spring has been so incredibly busy that I have not had much time to post on the blog. I have been swamped with homework, midterms, work at the lab and extra curricular activities. This was supposed to be my last and easiest term at OSU and his turned out to be my busiest. Though my classes are not hard, they are just a lot of work and combined with everything else I have been really busy. The BeavR Wiki project is just starting to get big and Relay for Life is next weekend and I am doing pharmaceutical research about 10 hrs per week. Fortunately for me, I don't have any midterms this week so I can focus on everything else but school. I am also working on a feasibility study about starting a business around a wirelessly powered dental/surgical headlight. This is a project for my entrepreneurship class. Last weekend my mother was up here in Corvallis for moms weekend at OSU. It was nice to see her and to hear about her trip to Kenya. She brought my dog Annie to stay with me for the weekend. In addition to all my other activities, I have been tying at least on fly every day in my attempt get ready for summer. For all those who are interested, Graduation is on June 17th at 2pm at Reeser Stadium. All are welcome.

Oregon Dental Convention

This last week I spent Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the Oregon Dental Convention (ODC). It was a great experience. I met a whole bunch of dentist and attended lectures from some of the worlds experts on lasers, minimally invasive dentistry and implantology. It was really awesome to network with so many professionals and dental school faculty. The exhibitors were all really great about showing off their products and explaining the latests and greatest new technology. It was neat to go around to the loupes manufactures and see the difference. Loupes are the glasses that dentists wear that have the magnification built into them. I will be getting a pair once I get started at school. The keynote speaker at the event was Gert Boyle. She is the chairwoman of Columbia Sportswear. She gave a really entertaining presentation with the co-author of her book.

Its Official

I am officially going to go to Oregon Health and Science University for dental school. I found out on December 1, 2006. I am making it official and that I am not in the application process for any other schools. I am getting very excited about starting school on August 20th. I am not the least bit excited about moving to Portland. There is just too many people for my liking. It will take too dang long to get to know everybody. I am also not looking forward to public transportation. At this point I am not sure what my living situation will be. I am just beginning the process of figuring that out. Either way I am looking forward to my summer with nothing to do except play and starting dental school.

Finals are Over and Spring Break has Begun

I just finished taking finals for winter term and my spring break has begun. I finished strong this morning with the BA 390, Marketing final. I should end up doing pretty well in my classes this term but final grades are still to be determined. For the break, I am planning on catching up on all of the things that I have been putting off for the last week while I was studying for finals. I am planning on going to the gym today, hanging out with friend and probably doing a little partying with friends this evening. I will also probably watch a little basketball and do some work on Relay for Life logistics and the BeavR Wiki. At some point during the next week I will be heading home to Ashland for a few days to say good by to my mother before she heads off to Africa for three weeks. I may head over to Bend to do a little skiing at Mt. Bachelor next week as well. That is all I have to say for now.

p.s. If someone is reading this then please leave a comment.

Beavers Baseball Home Opener

The Oregon State Beavers Baseball team had their home opener this weekend against the Purple Aces from Evansville. The Beavers swept the three game series against the number 25 ranked Purple Aces bringing their record to 17 and 3. Though this team is different than last years National Champions team, they are almost as good with plenty of room for improvement. The only thing missing is someone to step up and become a stand out performer like Cole Gilespie did last year. If someone does step up there is no reason that this team won't be in Omaha just like the two previous seasons. I went to both Fridays and Saturdays games and was very impressed with the way that the team handled themselves. The defense was good, the pitching was dominant and the rest of the team is swinging the bats well. New to Goss Stadium at Colman Field this year is an infield made of field turf and a new video scoreboard. This is going to be another exciting year for Beaver Baseball.

Dental Problems and Systemic Health

I just read this great article about how your oral health is good predictor of many different health problems throughout the entire body. Click here to read it. This article says that one of the strongest predictors of heart disease is periodontal inflammation. It seems that your dentist probably know more about your overall health than you think.

Weekedn 3/3-3/4

This weekend I went home to Ashland. My roommate Ryan and I drove down Saturday evening. When we got there my mother had a feast ready for us. Ham and scalloped potatoes. The next morning we got up and went skiing at Mt Ashland. The weather was beautiful but the snow was just ok. We skied until about 1:00 the we stopped back at home on our way back up to school. Mom loaded up us with food and goodies. While we drove I listened to Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. It was a good book about unconscious decision making process. Highly recommended.

BeavrWiki

BeavrWiki is a project that I have been working on with a student group that I am involved in. It is the same program as Wikipedia except it only contains information about OSU. This week we had an article published in our school news paper about our project. It has been a lot of fun to work with and has been a great learning experience. I have already learned a lot about using the internet since we started. We are now trying to get the word out to everyone associated with OSU so this will be a well used resource for everyone associated with OSU. The cool thing about it is that everyone who uses the Wiki are also the people who provide the content for the Wiki.

Weekend

This weekend I am Studying for my physics midterm that is on Wednesday night. I am also starting to write the final paper for my History of Medicine class. When this paper is done I will be finished with the class for good. Also this weekend, I am going to work out, go grocery shopping and register for spring term classes.

Website

Don't forget to check out my website. It is mostly dental related but there are some other cool pictures too.

Relay for Life

This spring I am working on the organizing committee for the OSU relay for life. This is an annual American Cancer Society fund raiser. We are raising money for cancer research and advocacy programs. If you follow this link you can donate to our cause and learn more about what we do.

Last weekend I went fishing on the North fork of the John Day River. We Had a lot of fun. If you want to see Pictures click here. Also I will post a link on my website when I get a chance.

All right, I am still experimenting here but keep checking back as I will continue to update when I have the chance.

First post

Hi Everyone this is my first Attempt at posting on a blog. Just created this on a whim and am trying it for the first time.