Friday was such a beautiful day that I skipped lecture and went mountain biking with Dan, Mark and Justin...and Sango. I told Justin I felt a little guilty about it and he replied, rather sternly, that I should squelch that attitude as soon as I can before it is too late. What he meant was that I should resist the pressure and expectations the medical community places on doctors to commit themselves to medicine all or nothing. I understand his point, however for me at least I want to be the best doctor I can be, and I know that will mean spending more than 40 hours a week at my job. I don't want to be just "a doctor," as if it were a 9-5 job. I decided to enter medicine in part because it is a challenging, demanding profession. If having plenty of time to play around outside when the sun was shining was a priority, I could have stuck with my previous career. The reason I didn't was because I have always wanted a career that would be something that would require of me passion and perseverance.

Akiko came up from Corvallis to hear the first Portland Taiko concert of the year. To my surprise, Byron Au Yong was a guest artist. One of his pieces, Ji Mo, was performed. At intermission Naomi asked what kind of music he composed. That's hard to describe, so I just told her it was like contemporary ritualistic music, like something you might image for a film or theater. I wonder how disappointed Byron would be in that statement! The piece was unusual musically, but has some very nice visual and performative aspects I thought. That fact that I am still thinking about today, however, more than the more traditional pieces, is a testimony to its impact I suppose.

After the show we went to Doug Fir to me Peter and Cam, who were pretty lubed up with beers. Peter was annoyed at the New Year's post I made, which surprised me since I didn't really think the pictures and text could be taken seriously by anyone. They are pretty clearly stupid party pictures, etc. etc.