Huh, that’s not something I ever thought I would add to my résumé. As of last Sunday (5/1) I directed my second 5K. It was a modestly sized event; there were about 50 runners, and 100+ people including volunteers and family. For me it has been one of the greatest experiences of my life, all the effort and stress that goes into an event is totally worth it, when people start thanking you for a great event as they leave the course.

Hundreds of safety pins, bibs, bags, plastic cups, bagels, and what not. Organizing such an event takes a ton of hard work and can’t be accomplished without help. My team this year was unbelievable, raising hundreds of dollars from sponsors, putting up hundreds of posters, passing out brochures and flyers. Organizing such a large event is a great way to learn the true value of team work.

Next year will be my last year as the race director, and I’m not looking forward to it. Hopefully I’ll be able to organize other races, perhaps bigger races 10Ks and beyond! If any one else is interested in organizing a race, and would like some pointers and what not feel free to contact me!

As a bit of a side note, I’m hoping to run a few races myself later on this summer and into the fall.

LIVESTRONG – this is Lance Armstrong’s charity that helps to support cancer research and victims. It’s a phenomenal charity that has been doing fantastic work.

charity: water – this is another amazing charity that is doing great work all over the world bringing clean water to underdeveloped nations and impoverished areas.

Donor’s Choose – this charity helps raise money for supplies in classrooms that are underfunded all over the country, I’ve seen some great things happen through it.

Alex’s Lemonade Stand – this is really a tear-jerking story of a girl who was diagnosed with cancer and decided to start a lemonade stand to raise money for research. She has since passed away but the charity continues to do fantastic work.

If you still insist on giving me something a Kiva gift card would be amazing, Kiva is a site were one can make microloans to rising entrepreneurs in third world countries and help them run their businesses, you can see my Kiva profile here.

Happy giving! I hope you guys enjoyed your holidays and are enjoying school/work.

1. Write 1 post every week (Project52)
   • Utilizing the project52 program and by setting aside time for myself to write posts every week.
2. Minimize my procrastination
   • By creating and utilizing a schedule/to-do list and following it. Beginning assigned tasks within 24 hours of when they are assigned and laying out a concrete plan to finish them at least 72 hours before they are due.
3. Improve my interviewing skills
   • By participating in mock interviews (in person and over skype) and placing myself into more public speaking opportunities and situations where I am forced to interact with unfamiliar people.
4. Improving my fitness and overall health
   • By scheduling time to go to they gym every week and laying out a plan to use that time every week.
   • Also by training for and hopefully running some road races (5k,10K, etc)
     • This will be accomplished by using the many training plans available online
   • By improving my diet
     • This will be accomplished by actively monitoring my food intake, minimizing fast food, and making an active effort to eat less junk food.
5. Devote more time to and develop Pre-Med Hell
   • I started this site almost one year ago exactly, and it has far surpassed my expectations so far, in 2011, I plan on actively instituting some sort of publishing schedule to make posts more regular, and to recruit more writers.
   • I also plan on working with our current staff to brain storm ideas to increase publicity and traffic. The goal will be to double traffic, and followers (twitter/facebook)
     • This will be done in a multitude of ways, that will be determined after an initial discussion with the other writers.
6. Become more active in my current research
   • I plan on doing this by setting aside a hard schedule for when to do research, and set aside specific tasks to finish during those designated time slots.
   • My specific goals with my current research is to publish and present by the end of the semester ideally.
7. Participate in summer research
   • This is an on going process and will be done by me submitting my applications for various programs that I am interested in well ahead of time, I plan on finishing and submitting these applications by the 14th of February.
8. Become more consistent with my volunteering
   • Currently I have 223 hours of volunteering in a level one trauma center, and I plan on maintaining my 4 hours/week schedule through 2011.
   • I also would like to expand my non medical volunteering so far I have volunteered at two separate Chicago marathons, organized a 5K, and am assisting with another this year. My goal is to continue to expand and grow my non medical volunteering to at least 1 event per month.
9. Follow up on my shadowing
   • I plan on doing this by continuing to keep contact with physicians that I have shadowed in the past and continuing to shadow them.
10. Finish my personal statement
    • My goal is to finish this by the end of May, this includes having it proofread and edited. I will set aside 1-2 hours per week to work on this.

That’s pretty much all for this year. Lets hope for a better 2011 than 2010.

Firstly, I’ve created a lifestream that will contain feeds from this blog, and all of my other social media accounts. This blog will contain all of my in depth and longer posts, while my lifestream will contain shorter insights, and rants. You can find it here <http://www.insanemo.com/>. I am using the free irresistible theme from WooThemes.

Secondly, I’ve had two companies express interest in my Pre-Med blog <http://www.premedhell.com/>. This is a fairly exciting thing for me, currently I’m working with them to work out a deal that will help everyone involved.

Thirdly, the best new our Company <http://www.studenteats.com/> StudentEats, sent our our first presentation deck, to another company, and we were invited to attend a startup demo day as guests, and also given the option to apply to present at the conference.

Now, I have to get back to studying, and I apologize for the lack of substantive blog posts as of late, I have been really busy writing for PMH, but worry not, I have a very good one that is almost half done, expect it up next week.

Needless to say I am trying to get an A in organic chemistry this semester, which means studying a LOT. I’ve decided to set up a PBwiki for all of my notes, in every class. This way I can have all of my notes in an uniform standardized format. The benefit to this is that I am now able to log into my wiki and read my notes whenever I am free, and I don’t have to waste time looking for something specific. The way they are organized depends on the class; for instance in my organic chemistry class we have about 2 quizzes between each exam, so my notes are organized Q1, Q2, E1, Q3, Q4, E2, Q5, Q6, E3, Q7, Q8, F. This way I can continually reinforce concepts in my mind throughout the day.

Another tip that I have found to be helpful is to review my notes after every class, and then review them again before the next class. All in all, I try to review my notes about 3 times between each class. This way by the time the exam rolls around I will have memorized a good chunk of my notes.

Life

Life has been good, I have been keeping on track for my goals for this year. I just celebrated my birthday a few days ago. I have been working on growing my personal brand, as well as my other two brands, StudentEats and Pre-Med Hell. Also I have been working pretty hard to get our AMSA 5k set to go. We are probably as the AMSA board going to the AMSA national convention in Anahiem in March.

Blogging

I’m not going to lie its been hard to keep up with all my blogging since school started, I have been writing fairly long posts for my other blog “Pre-Med Hell” and trying to grow that. If your interested in writing for PMH let me know. I am also trying to keep up with Project 52, and so far so good I think I have managed a new post every week since the year started.

Any ways I thought I would throw out a quick update for you guys, and get back to studying for orgo. I promise a more meaningful and longer post next week, if you have any suggestions leave me a comment, I would love to read them.

-Signing off M.A.

My ProGrid Guide 2s!

I LOVE these shoes. They are awesome running shoes for the price, I was able to buy a pair for around $75.00 which for running shoes is a great deal. They were the Independent Running Retailers Association (IRRA) 2009 shoe of the year, and that award was well deserved. To me the Saucony ProGrid Guide 2 is one of the best running shoes I have ran in to date. It is a light stability shoe, it weighs in at about 11.4 ounces, and it fits great.

For someone like me who deals with a little bit of pronation this is a great pair of shoes, they provide just enough arch support to deal with the pronation, and provide a great deal of stability. My feet were able to fit snugly inside the shoes right out of the box, and so far I have ran about 45 miles in them and they feel great. I don’t have any strains, pulls, or pains so far, and the cushioning on these shoes is great. The toebox is fairly roomy, and they seem to hold up well in snow.

They do take a little time to break in, sightly stiff out of the box, but once you have broken them in they feel great. It has great heel cushioning and ventilation as well. They are comfortable, durable and everything you would want in a pair of running shoes. I can see myself buying another pair of these to keep in case they stop production. If your just getting into running, or are training for anything do your feet a favor and try these on. Head to your local running store and give these shoes a spin, you won’t regret it.

When you go an follow Pre Med Hell on twitter, please stop by my twitter page and give me a follow.

I came across this post on a friends site, that I just subscribed to, and would suggest all pre-med students to subscribe as well. My friend was gracious enough to show me some of the upcoming posts and interviews, and I must say, there is a lot of helpful information for those on the pre-med track. Not to mention the giveaways that are planned. I think that this new site will go places, especially with the amazing content they have planned. Feel free to visit it, the name is Pre Med Hell.

They recently put up a post highlighting books that were recommended by current medical school students and physicians. I have read some of these books, and ordered the rest on amazon. I will be reading the rest of these books hopefully before I finish my winter break and I will let you guys know how they went.

New Years Resolutions

One of my resolutions for the new year was to write more and to do more guest posts, I was asked by my friend at Pre Med Hell to write some content and guests posts for the new site, and I have accepted and hopefully will have my first guest post up by the end of this month. So subscribe, follow them on twitter, and fan them on facebook as they have some exclusive giveaways planned for their twitter and facebook followers.

Fun

Have I ever mentioned how much fun video games are, I haven’t had the time to play many video games since I started my undergraduate career, but over winter break I have had the pleasure of playing quite a bit of Dragon Age: Origins and it is an amazing game. I absolutely love it, the various paths you can take and the character interactions. I currently have around 50 hours of game play in and need to get back to finishing it.

I also saw the movies Avatar and Sherlock Holmes recently and will be doing short reaction pieces on them soon in the next few days.

Now I get back to Dragon Age.

I thoroughly enjoyed 2009, it was a great year for me. My grades were pretty good, I ran almost every single day, and was truly in the best shape of my life. I made some great friendships,  and also was able to network with some really great people.

2009 for me will best be remembered as the year I took the first step, I have had a bunch of ideas in my head for a while now, various business ideas, this blog, my new startup, other blogs, etc. In 2009 I started as many of them as I possibly could. I started this blog and I co-founded a startup.

I spend a large part of the year 2008 on the computer and made it my goal for 2009 to spend less time on the computer, I think I have achieved that goal. My other goal was to become more active, I also think I succeeded with becoming more active.

Highlights of 2009:

• Co-Founded a Startup
• Created this blog
• Became more active
• Had fairly good grades

2010 – A Plan for a New Year

My top goal for 2010 is to finish product development on my new startup, and hopefully have a soft launch before August. I also hope to write more often on this blog, and hopefully to improve my writing skills. Other than that I would like to continue getting good grades, remain active, and spend even less time on the computer.

I also really really really need to clean out my room, the overarching goal of the year is going to be to minimize my habit of procrastinating. So what I really want to achieve in 2010 is efficiency, I want to be a more efficient student, business man, friend, and person.

Goals for 2010:

• Efficiency
• Finish product development for StudentEats
• Get more involved with the Lean Startup Circle
• Blog more
• Write guest posts
• Run the Chicago Marathon
• Spend even less time on the computer
• Continue getting good grades

I would like to wish all of you a happy new year, and hope that 2009 was a great year for you and 2010 will be an even better year. Enjoy your celebrations and here’s to an amazing 2010.

Best Movie of the Decade

Gladiator:
This movie released at the start of the decade, was nothing short of beautiful and amazing. This is definitely Russell Crowe’s best work, I watched this movie over and over, and it never seems to get boring. They just don’t make movies like this anymore.

Runner Ups: Requiem for a Dream, Casino Royale, 25th Hour, Dark Knight, History of Violence, Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind, Sideways, Memento

Best Book of the Decade

Bad Science – Ben Goldacre:
This book is a brilliant account of bad science, it had me in stitches the whole time. It is extremely well written and hilarious, while informing us of the bad science all around us. A must read for everyone.

Runner Ups: The DaVinci Code – Dan Brown, Atonement – Ian McEwan, The Road – Cormac McCarthy, Freakonomics – Levitt and Dubner, A Short History of Nearly Everthing – Bill Bryson

Best Phone of the Decade

iPhone:
I can’t say I have seen a better phone this decade, it reinvented the mobile web and the world of mobile devices. Not much more can be said on this topic.

Runner Ups: Blackberry Bold, G1, Verizon Droid.

Best Car of the Decade

Corvette ZR1:
This car is beautiful, powerful, and may have reinvented the concept of the American super car. It makes its power extremely accessible, looks beautiful, and brings with it all of the Corvette heritage. By all records  it is a beast both on and off the track.

Runner Ups: Nissan GT-R, Lamborghini Reventon, Bugatti Veyron, VW GTI, Hyundai Genesis

Best Album of the Decade

Kid A – Radiohead:
I like to say this is the album that redefined rock, but the truth is that Radiohead is the band that redefined rock. The album is anything but traditional and shows that Radiohead isn’t afraid of trying new things and going their own way.

Runner Ups: Next – Sevendust, The Rising – Bruce Springsteen, American Idiot – Green Day, Death Magnetic – Metallica, Discovery – Daft Punk

Best Song of the Decade

Lose Yourself – Eminem:
I’m not a huge fan of rap and hip hop music, but this song is probably the best song I heard in 2000′s, it was inspirational, beautiful, and truly a work of art.

Runner Ups: Hurt – Johnny Cash, One More Time – Daft Punk, Everything in Its Right Place – Radiohead, Boulevard of Broken Dreams – Green Day, Beautiful Day – U2, Broken, Beaten, and Scarred – Metallica

Best Musician of the Decade

Metallica:
This band may just be the epitome of consistency, for the past 28 years they have put out good, no great music. Of course St. Anger was horrible to say the least, but they were able to bounce back with Death Magnetic, they have gone where few metal bands before them have gone, the rock and roll hall of fame.

Runners Ups: Radiohead, Linkin Park, U2, Rise Against, Bruce Springsteen, and Sevendust