I took a bunch of wine cases from a wine superstore to use as packing material. Wine boxes are great shipping containers; they pack a sturdy 32 lbs/sq in. cardboard. This comes with no surprise, since wine is heavy. The sides come with substantial padding that is great for packing electronic equipment.

However, apparently you cannot ship wine (or parcels in wine packaging) through UPS without a license. Doh! Fortunately the guy at the UPS Store was kind enough to repack my boxes in a discrete cardboard box for a nominal fee.

misc life

One of my initial concerns in location of residency training was the cost. A metropolitan area like New York City and San Francisco comes with a hefty cost of living price tag. Do I want to pay $800 a month for a 2 bedroom gated condominium with swimming pool and tennis courts in Augusta, Georgia, or $2000 a month for a closet in Manhattan? While you should probably focus more on the quality of program and location in residency training, an extra $1200 a month in savings can be applied to important use (like repaying loans).

In retrospect, the cost differential isn’t as significant as I initially thought; the salaries are usually somewhat proportional to cost of living. One of my friends training in Boston ended up with similar funds as I did, simply because he had a higher salary and did not have a car to maintain. He’s now moving to Los Angeles, which is a sprawling freeway wasteland with traditionally crappy resident salaries.

I gave the salary issue a more quantitative analysis, and indeed it holds true to a certain extent. Take, for instance, the medicine residency program at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Medical Center in NYC. For 2009, the PGY-2 salary is $58,463.  A subsidized studio runs about $1,600/month near the hospital. Wilmer Eye Institute in Baltimore pays its PGY-2 residents $44,192. An apartment in Baltimore away from the ghetto will cost at least $1,000 a month. The nearly $14,000 annual salary difference in NYC ought to cover the extra housing costs and hefty city taxes. In addition, you’d have to maintain a car in Baltimore.

But wait, you’re comparing a Yugo to a Rolls-Royce! Indeed, higher profile academic centers will still draw residents despite being in a seedy location and offering a lousy benefits package. It actually depends on the city.  MEEI offers a PGY-2 salary of approximately $52,000. Doheny offers a PGY-2 salary of $48,000, but a PGY-3 receives an extra $5,000 annually.

Ultimately, the end result is negligible. Instead, you should ask yourself whether you can tolerate living in a cramped apartment instead of a suburban home with a yard. Can you handle living in Utah if you typically spend your Friday nights at the bar? Or can you handle waiting in line for hours in Central Park to play tennis (don’t forget to buy a public tennis pass, or you’ll be fined!)?

economy, misc life, money

I found a photo from an ice sculpture carving competition I attended in 2007 up in Cooperstown, NY. Around that time, we experienced about 2 – 3 ft of snowfall in the course of one evening. Those were fun times.

misc life, photos

Bad outcomes do occur on the roadway. Several weeks ago as I was driving to the airport on I-95 around 3:30am, a white Infiniti I20 whizzed past me on the left lane. The roads were slick from a constant torrent that had been ongoing from the night before. I was cruising around 55mph–I’d say the guy in the Infiniti was speeding closer to 80mph. About 15 minutes later, I approached a police and ambulance barricade. The Infiniti was upside down, with its front hood smashed in the concrete barrier on the left lane. A Cutlass station wagon was adjacent, with its driver’s side door crumpled.

I could hear the siren of an ambulance wailing off in the distance. I wondered if the driver was dead, but I supposed the ambulance would have kept kept its siren off if the patient were definitively dead.

While I don’t who is at fault, this is yet another reason why you shouldn’t drive 80mph in foggy, rainy weather with 50ft visibility ahead.

misc life, rant

I whipped up another dry run on the first variation of Schubert’s Impromptu Op. 142, No. 3. It’s amazing how many subtle imperfections you can notice from a recording. It makes me appreciate the professionals so much more, seeing how difficult it is to perfect even the simplest pieces.

misc hobbies