If someone told me that a drink that gives me focus, I would've been like yeah I already heard about it, Red Bull or Monster.  I'd probably think it's pure bull.  But I never thought there was a drink made for calorie burning that gives me focus.

So what happened was I was walking by the water bottle isle in Jewel-Osco in Chicago and I saw a drink that was not hyped up, however it looks as if a lot of people bought it because there were few cans left.  The drink is called Aspire.  After drinking 1 can I noticed my mind is a bit calm and I was able to focus on my studies.  It doesn't act like a stimulant, the feeling is subtle.

For most of you, you may not know what is Kosher or Halal meat.  The Jewish people call it kosher and the Muslims call it Halal, but they prepare meat about the same way. It is a fact that the quality of meat from being slaughtered for halal or kosher certification is far better than your traditional mainstream meat.  If you watch the movie Food, Inc., it'll give you a visual explanation of how bad the meat in America has gotten with inhumane practice of slaughtering the animals. The same practice is probably conducted in parts of Europe and China as well, but I'm not quite sure about that so, don't quote me on that.

What's So Special About Halal/Kosher Meat

Imagine you are going to get some blood tests done. A doctor will initially ask for a blood test when they are evaluating the status of your health. Why the blood test you may ask? For us doctors, we know that the blood carries the toxins, cholesterol, diseases, ions, etc.  Blood measurements can give tremendous amount of health information in humans. The same goes for animals as well.  Halal/Kosher meats must have its blood drained in order for the the meat to be certified. Also the animals must be healthy, not be diseased, not contaminated, and it cannot be partially eaten by other animals. 

As you we progress to reach our goal to be a medical doctor, we may be given a lot of things that we wouldn't receive if we were not doctors. I hear stories of doctors being snobby and acting as if they are the center of the world; well, I'm against that. Honestly, I don't really feel as if I'm all that despite of all the obstacles I've overcome to be where I am. I'm writing this post because when you reach near the end or at the end, you will be given a lot of priority and a lot of attention, and for that don't let it get to your head.

I remember when I and a bunch of my boys and their wives and girl friends decided to go to the theater. They all sat down and I ended up with a seat at the end. I like sitting in the middle because it's comfortable so I went the row behind them. They insisted that I sit on the same row as them but I was stubborn and I sat in the middle of the row behind them. So one of the guys got everyone up and got them to sit in the same row as me. His wife got up and told me, "you know we're only doing this because you're a doctor". That was not my intention and nor did I want them to do that, but that's society.

When you are making that 6-figure salary or more, just remember these points:

• Be humble, don't be arrogant
• Be grateful
• Always remember the people who helped you, such as your parents, siblings, and friends
• Always try to help others
• Don't be too flashy with superficial stuff
• Be generous; give a descent amount of charity because you are in a better place than most people in the world
• Treat everyone with respect regardless of how they look or what they own or where they come from
• Be open-minded and tolerable to everyone

Unfortunately, society is very biased on how you dress or what car you drive, because your appearance and what you have seems to define your worth. This is an inspirational video of how society sees you:

Moral of the story and the video, don't like the woman in the black dress. Treat others with respect regardless if they are a plumber or a janitor, because everyone matters.

Have you heard the phrase "hidden city" ticketing? Most probably not, mainly because airlines are against you know this and it leaves them in loosing money if it was publicized.  The best part of this is that you have the right to do this and the airlines can't stop you from saving money.

When I book airline tickets I play around the locations of airports to see where can I get the best deals to fly and I noticed a pattern of increasing prices based on big airports departures and arrivals.  These big airports are hubs for connecting flights.  But if you choose a local airport, which isn't a hub the prices "miraculously" go down.  So the "hidden city" ticketing method was developed by frugal individuals who just didn't want to pay the increasing airfares that airlines seems to have no problem charging us.  If you have a a lot of residency interviews then this could be a great way to save money while you travel.

Criteria for hidden city ticketing:

1. Must be one-way.

2. Must only have carry-on luggage.

NOTE: It doesn't always work, and sometimes direct flights can be cheaper than the hidden city ticketing method.

How to do "hidden city" ticketing:

1. Choose an airport of departure.

2. Find the local airport in the same state or close proximity of the connecting hub airport.  Make sure you choose a connecting flights, if the option is there.

3. Choose the local airport.

4. Try to see which ticket will allow you to connect to the city of your actual destination.

Example:
Let's say you want to go from Chicago to Dallas, and the tickets are expensive for direct flight between the two cities.  Choose Chicago as your departing airport and choose a local town near Dallas like Norman or Tulsa.  If they give you an option of connecting through an airport in Dallas to go to the airports nearby then choose that.  After you arrive at Dallas for connecting flight, you just grab you carry-on and just walk out of the airport; you got your airfare deal and you're on your way. Airlines hate this because it just leaves an empty seat in the connecting flight.  If they only had cheaper tickets then people wouldn't have to resort to this, especially for us students.

I hope this helps in getting deals.

I’m in my fourth semester here in Saint James School of Medicine and so I tried many things in my previous semesters to increase my efficiency in studying; some worked and some failed.  The methods that worked for me, I use it on a consistent basis and it helped me get through.  If your current study methods didn’t work for you then try what I did and perhaps it will help you.

Don’t Re-Write All the Notes
This is a common mistake most medical students make, and I made it too in my first semester. The notes are right in front of you, why would you want to re-write them. If you were to re-write the notes then only re-write the little important ones. The medical lectures the teachers give out are so big and you don’t have time to re-write and understand the concepts. In medical school every minute is precious and you don’t have time to write a novel so don’t attempt to write one. Therefore, don’t re-write the notes unless they are key concepts that will help you understand the material.

Read Out Loud
This helped me so much; I am a visual and an audio learner, and most people are. Read the notes out loud and don’t be lazy about it. If you read out loud you won’t loose attention of what you’re reading. If you read silently then it’s guaranteed that you will loose focus on what you’re reading. Medical terminology and concepts are not easy to comprehend easily, such as examples are pathways of the intrinsic clotting factors. It takes a while to differentiate and understand intrinsic and extrinsic pathways. Read out loud with someone and trust me it helps; and it didn’t just help me, it helped other students as well, especially in Histology.

Repetition is the Key
Remember the saying “practice makes perfect” well it’s true. If you read a medical term over and over again then the information will be stapled to your head. The same principal applies when reading the notes over and over again. This is what I did, I read one slide once, then went to the next one and read that, then I went back to the first slide and read it again. After reading slide one and slide two again, I read slide three, after reading slide three I went back to slide one, and I continued this process which allowed me to memorize the information easily. Also while doing this I read out loud so that helped my memorization even more.

These study methods takes a good amount of energy and so you will be tired after the first lecture, but you will get more out of it than re-writing the notes or reading them silently. Just note, try the study methods and be consistent about it, don’t be lazy about studying, if you are lazy then ask yourself what are you doing in medical school. Good luck studying.