Monday, March 29, 2010

Skiing, Last Time of the Season

I decided to go skiing one last time before the snow completely melts. I gathered enough courage to go up on the intermediate slopes. I saw the mountain from a new angle. The valley shimmered of different shades of blues and greens of Spring making its way up the mountain.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

My journalism organization, ED2010 Boston, just won a cash prize for being the best chapter in the nation. We spent the money on drinks and appetizers at a swanky bar. I am really lucky to have found this organization. I have met good friends through it including my die-hard rock climbing partner.

Ed2010 has regular meetings where we talk about the magazine writing industry and talk to those who are in it from local editors to professional writers. Since we are all friends and mostly all girls we host a lot of fun activities: dinner parties, cocktail parties, and our newest nutella party. In April we plan to head to the Hearst in New York City to meet with various magazine editors. We will be having lunch inside the gorgeous Hearst building too.

Pictures from our events.

Last year:


This past event:

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Boston at Sunrise

The core of every good photographer is the ability to peel away the layers of a subject to capture its essence. Escaping the neon clusterfuck of the city, I darted into the stark setting of Boston during sunrise to gain a different perspective. Accompanied by my new friend Katie, we set out for an eight hour photography excursion. I would love to possess that uncanny talent for shedding light on the honesty and beauty of a place like Boston. Here's my first attempt.

Monday, March 8, 2010

Dr. Atul Gawande

Floored. Twice in one week. Dr. Atul Gawande and Noam Chomsky.

Not only does Boston offer an abundance of excellent schools, but also talks by famous lecturers, scientist, linguist, and activist. With brilliant guest speakers hailing from all over the world, sharing of ideas, innovation and creativity is unstoppable here.

Dr. Atul Gawande, a surgeon at the Harvard School of Medicine and writer for the New Yorker, gave a talk at the Trinity Church. The talk runs a choose-your-own-adventure path; ways we can better the health care system or let it remain in its sickly state.

Dr. Gawande puts it simply, humans fail because of ineptitude. The knowledge exists on how to solve major flaws with the health care system, but we fail to put thought into action. "There are 6000 medications, I can prescribe and write to you," said Dr. Gawande. But the simplest way to solve the majority of illnesses is by following a checklist.

Dr. Gawande gave the parents of asthmatic children a checklist to take home of what they could do to help. "The checklist offers suggestions like vacuum your house and dust once a week," said Gawande. By prescribing checklist instead of medication they found that children's hospital admittance from asthmatic illnesses was lowered by 80%.

The problem is asthma is the number one diagnosis for admission. "As any doctor could tell you money is the driving force of the problem," said Dr. Gawande. He said that by changing the way doctors are paid we will greatly contribute to bettering health care.

Dr. Gawande believes to every patient worth its diagnosis, changing payment is crucial to giving Americans optimal and lasting health care. That sounds like a hard task, but Gawande says, "Health insurance is killing us slowly."

His solution is simple, no matter how much of an expert you may be, whether a parent or doctor, checklists improve outcomes.

Saturday, March 6, 2010

My journalism organization, ED2010 Boston, just won for the best chapter in the nation.

Monday, March 1, 2010

Stream the new Gorillaz album 'Plastic Beach' on NPR.

Full album streaming a week before its release.