A few of the photo’s from my exhibit at the Daily Planet. In the next day or so I will compile a complete showing of the 25 photos in the exhibit.

Pale is the new tan… I’m glad I am in Vermont.

Hockey is one of my favorite sports to shoot, whether it is the men’s team or the women’s team playing.  However, it is also one of the hardest sports to shoot.  Bad lightning, bad backgrounds and glass & boards that have years worth of abuse that mess up the picture.  However, when a good picture comes out, it’s pretty satisfying.

Last night, I worked the UVM women’s hockey game against Boston College.  It was a good game, as UVM came back from deficits of 2-0 and 3-2 to force overtime.  Ultimaltely, UVM lost in a shootout.  It was something I did not expect, and I learned that the shootout only applies to the women’s game in the Hockey East conference.  Anyway, here is the link to the picture slideshow that is associated with the game story on www.uvmathletics.com: http://www.flickr.com/photos/uvmathletics/sets/72157622845190230/show/

As promised, I have a few extras that did not make it onto the slideshow, but here it is:

Battling for the puck along the boards with a BC player close by

Nash and her teammates celebrate her goal in the second period

Boyles makes a shoulder save in the third period with Vermont looking to get the lead

 
Looking for options near the goal in the third period of Friday night’s game

That’s it for now.  See you next time when I post some pictures from the men’s hockey game against UMass on Tuesday night!

As some of you know, I have a work-study job as a photographer for Athletic Communications at UVM.  Athletic Communications handles the UVM Athletics’ website, www.uvmathletics.com as well as managing the media that comes in contact with the athletic teams.  My pictures go onto UVM Athletics’ Flickr page, and there’s a direct link to these pictures once the game story is posted.  Some of my pictures are used along with the game stories as well.  But, I take a lot of pictures – anywhere from 500-1000 per game, so there are a lot of good ones that do not make it for public viewing.  So, I thought I’d share a few of them with you here.

Be Patient: Pictures may take a minute to load.
Also: If the pictures look funny to you (they are squished or altered in some way), it’s probably the browser you’re using.  Simply click on the photo to see the full picture in its normal resolution.  Enjoy!

A free-throw at the recent pre-season game between UVM and St. Michael’s College.

The scene at Gutterson Fieldhouse in Vermont.  Hockey games at “The Gut” is almost always going to be a sellout, with 4,003 fans on top of the action giving visiting teams fits.

A shot from one of the press boxes at the Gutterson Fieldhouse.  The press box hangs over the bleachers and one must stand in order to see the action on the near boards.

Brian Roloff and UVM celebrate their first goal against B.C. in the home opener.  The game was televised on ESPNU, and this picture appeared on the ESPN-U website for a week highlighting the Catamounts’ impressive win over Boston College, a team that won the National Championship in 2008.

After every game, I’ll try to post some pictures here that did not appear in the Flickr slideshow or on the UVM Athletics’ website.  You can tell whether a picture is a picture I took or not by looking below the photo with the caption “Photo Credit: Grady Congleton”.

UVM Rescue tending to occupants of a motor vehicle crash on Main Street near Living and Learning building.

At approximately 6pm a minor motor vehicle accident occurred on Main Street in Burlington.  It appeared all occupants were uninjured and damage looked minimal.  This is a location where many accidents take place, as you may remember just a couple weeks ago where the traffic light was destroyed from a late night hit and run.

Aside from the freezing weather, my UVM visit today was quite enjoyable. The campus is large, which could be the only factor getting in the way of me applying to this school, but in a way that has it’s advantages. During the tour, my guide was greeted by multiple friends of him, which didn’t happen at Columbia. They’re so happy/friendly/warm here, I feel like I would get along with everyone. Also, my tour guide made MULTIPLE Harry Potter references and told us that UVM has a quidditch team…without anyone having to ask about it. The people at UVM adore Harry Potter, so much so that they had a theme up around campus for Halloween where they labeled different areas of the campus with names of locations in the book like The Chamber of Secrets and Diagon Alley. There were also walls that had been “vandalized” with chalk by characters, like Harry, who proudly boasted that “Harry Potter was here” on the side of the Environmental Studies building.

Where I ACTUALLY want to go to school.

The view of the mountains and Champlain is also gorgeous, and Burlington is one of the cutest towns I’ve ever seen. The shopping is awesome (something I always look for in a town), and the people seem to all be very laid back and crunchy-granola-y. So far I really like it here. They have a good English program, and, according to their little UVM by Numbers brochure, 20% of UVM graduates are enrolled in graduate school within one year of graduation. Which is amazing. And what I’m hoping to do with my life. They’re also really environmentally friendly, which is AWESOME considering that I’m kind of a tree-hugger myself. All of the plastic they use in the cafeteria(…well…almost all…) is biodegradable.

So far, I’m really enjoying this college search. I’ve got to stop comparing places to Columbia though, and look at everything with a clean, unadulterated/unbaised view. I found myself, at the beginning of this tour, remembering what I had been told at Columbia, but stopped myself, because just by thinking that I felt like a total jerk. But when released from the “Columbia is my one and my only” state of mind, I came to the conclusion that UVM is definitely somewhere I could see myself in two years time.

Do you hate standing out in the cold wondering when the CATS bus is going to arrive at your stop?  Well now there is a solution.   Blirp it, the new online, text, and Iphone app can tell you exactly where the bus is on campus and how long it’s going to arrive at stops.  The site, uvm.blirpit.com, is still in beta but I fired it up today (even though I am currently sitting in 75 degree F Austin, TX) and right there in my browser was a google map with the bus route and a indicator that moved with what I assume was the actual position of the bus.  We will be featuring this story early next week to get more details and exactly how this works.

Drs. Kirchenbaum (l) and Borra (r)

Tonight held the second of three poetry events planned at the Fleming Museum this fall. The first was on September 30th (with Sue Burton & David Cavanagh) and the next one is coming up on November 18th (featuring readings by Caroline Knox, Dorothea Lasky, and Dara Wier).

The Painted Word Poetry Series guests for this evening’s readings were Jill Leininger, a former poetry resident at the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, and UVM Assoc. Professor of Italian Antonello Borra with his translator Dr. Blossom Kirchenbaum.

The poems ranged from reflective and deeply personal (Leininger) to offbeat and whimsical (Borra, in animated renderings  from his new collection Bestiario) with a lot of emotional and descriptive ground covered between the two styles.

Leininger opened her reading with a short, wincing account of the recent loss of all of the poems she had been working on for her second book. “Mac meltdown” was the description of the incident, and as a result the verse she shared all came from her first manuscript.

Inspiration can come from surprising places. Once Leininger’s considerable loss is a little less fresh, it occurred to me that as much as it wiped out the material for her second book , perhaps if she’s able to redirect that emotional energy the incident could also prove to be a fertile springboard for new poems.

Brent Carden, a former UVM student, was sentenced to 6 months in prison for his part in a Cocain ring at a former UVM fraternity.  Carden will also serve 4 years probation and pay a $4,000 fine.  The sentence was the result of drug dealing case at the Lambda Iota fraternity.  Two other members of the fraternity were also sentenced for their parts in the case.

Great up-to-the-minute coverage by the campus newspaper! Hitting the highlights as they need to be hit. More to come in Tuesday’s edition and online at VermontCynic.com

Some recent tweets:

BoT Meeting: Sharp increase in student need for aid not foreseen by financial administration; making selective use of “scarce resources.”

BoT: SGA President Bryce Jones questions executive relations with student body, administration thinks “not competent enough to contribute.”

BoT meeting:University President Fogel says key to national acclaim lies in recruitment of non-resident students; more selective enrollment.

1,500 miles

7-9 people

in a 12 passenger van

4 states

in 7 days!

Rick and I drove this passenger van from Burlington VT to Bahston MA.

We picked up his family near the airport and headed downtown to walk the Freedom Trail.

We walked through cemeteries…

Through memorials…

…past the Union Oyster House…

…across the street…

…to the North End…

…Through the Old North Church…

…up and down the streets of the Italian District…

…across a bridge and up the Bunker Hill Monument…

…a 15 minute wait for the ferry…

(iPhones are genius.)

…on the ferry…

(Rick’s adorable sister with her fancy new sassy hair-do that I just love! And Rick’s Mom)

…Rick’s dad re-living a Titanic moment…

…more ferry pics…

…and back to the Italian District to dine at Giacomo’s Ristorante, because Rachel Ray did, and so must we.

and it was AWESOME!

As you can see here, people are lining up around 4:30, for the restaurant to open and 5.

It’s a very intimate setting, and they squeeze you in.

The food is amazing! The pumpkin tortellini was incredible, but I understand that the butternut squash ravioli is to die for too.

Next, Kennebunk Maine for a good nights rest at a very old inn with much charm!

….we stopped by the Portland Head Lighthouse…

…and then on to the L.L.Bean Flagship Store  in Freeport, Maine…

Then headed to Conway New Hampshire that night for a comfortable stay at the White Mountain Hotel.

I thought this hotel was a gem!  It was built in the early 1990’s but it has the feel of a 1930’s or 40’s hotel.

It was beautiful!

The hotel sits at the base of this cliff that is breath-taking!

In North Conway, we found this wonderful breakfast joint called The Stairway Cafe. The food was fresh and delicious…

as was the ambiance…

…we drove through New Hampshire on the Kancamagus Highway…

…and stopped for photos…

…both scenic and portraits…

…and then drove to Burlington Vermont that evening…

…woke up the next morning…and drove out to South Hero for the Annual Apple Festival..and our huge van got stuck in the mud, which was promtply towed out by a local farmer and his tractor…

…then we ventured to Stowe for a behind the scenes tour of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream Factory…

…exciting, eh?…

Beautiful Stowe

Sunday, we drove around and showed Rick’s family where he goes to Medical School: the lovely UVM campus on a crisp Autumn morning..

…then Family photos were in session:

Rick’s sister and husband flew to Burlington for the weekend.  We were so happy they could join us for this leg of the trip!

Rick, Moi, Ma ‘n Pops, Kevin (Rick’s brother)

Dana (Rick’s sister) & Blake, Torben & Cara (Rick’s oldest sister)

Monday morning, bags were packed, and we headed to Sharon VT for a visit to the Joseph Smith Birthplace…

A modern day prophet called of God the restore the Gospel of Jesus Christ back to the earth in this last dispensation.

We then drove on to Portsmouth NH and made our way down the NH coastline towards Massachusetts…

One of the MAJOR highlights was this little place called The Beach Plum

I thought the prices were a little steep for a soft serve cone…

…until they gave them to us.

They were HUGE! This is a “small” that Kevin is holding.

The “kiddie” size is about an inch lower.

We were in hysterics when they handed the cones through the sliding glass window.

It was unreal!

…our visit to Salem MA consisted of jumping out of our car for a photo or two, then back on the road again…

…to Hahvard Square… until night fell upon us…

…then we headed back to our hotel…

and called it a night!

The following morning, we visited the historical sites in Lexington and Concord…

without my camera. I sometimes usually get sick of hauling that sucker around.

We dropped all the family off at the airport that afternoon and Rick and I headed home, all alone in that 12 passenger van.

It was a trip that took us all over New England and I was able to get to know my in-laws better and see more of New Hampshire.

That was a treat!

Thank you Rich and Janna for making it happen! We love you guys!

My mom arrived the next day.

More on that later!

]]> http://uvmsports.wordpress.com/2009/10/21/win-impresses-uvm-womens-hockey-coach/ Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:49:54 +0000 Ted Ryan http://uvmsports.wordpress.com/2009/10/21/win-impresses-uvm-womens-hockey-coach/

It wasn’t the win itself that most impressed University of Vermont women’s hockey coach Tim Bothwell; rather, it was the manner in which the Catamounts defeated No. 4 Clarkson, 4-1, last weekend.

The victory was a milestone for UVM in that the Catamounts had never won a game in which the opponent was ranked that highly in the national polls.

Audio: Hear UVM women’s hockey coach Tim Bothwell talk about beating No. 4 Clarkson.

“They’re the highest ranked team, a very, very good team, so it was important for that reason,” Bothwell said this week, “but it’s important not even so much because we won but for the way we played and competed against them for two full games really.”

In other words, this wasn’t a fluke, a decision that in the past might have resulted solely because UVM’s goaltender had an outrageous game.

“I was so happy and impressed with the girls with the way we competed from the drop of the puck on Friday and generally speaking right through the whole weekend against a very good team and that’s a very, very good thing,” Bothwell said.

While goaltender Kristen Olychuck again excelled, Bothwell said the 3-1 Catamounts’ improvments are due to many players showing improvement.

“We have a whole bunch of players that are up significantly in terms of their play and contributions from last year,” he said. “You hope to see that as they go from freshmen to sophomores to juniors, but you don’t always see it. We’ve definitely seeing a big jump from six or seven players in terms of their confidence level, the way they’re competing, the way they’re executing … all kinds of things.”

Next up: Another national contender in Princeton on Friday at 7 p.m. and Saturday at 4 p.m. at Gutterson Fieldhouse.

El deporte es una de las actividades que más atención generan a nivel mundial, por lo que un evento como el Congreso Mundial del Deporte seguramente atraerá una gran cantidad de interesados. Este año, se llevará a cabo en la Universidad del Valle de México, campus Coyoacán, y reunirá a varios de los deportistas más importantes de estas últimas fechas.

• 12 al 14 de noviembre de 2009 – Ciudad de México – Universidad del Valle de México Campus Coyoacán – 9:00 a 20:00 Hrs. – Costo $120.00 Expo, $3,500.00 Congreso

Para más datos, consulta la página oficial.

Si te interesa conocer más, sólo sigue leyendo.



Las personas que se inscriban tendrán derecho a:

* Tomarse una foto con cada uno de los siguientes deportistas, y que la autografíen: Usain Bolt, Yelena Isinbaeva, Manolo Sanchís y Kalusha
* Participar en la trivia para ganar la cena con Yelena Isinbaeva: deberás contestar correctamente y en el menor tiempo la trivia que recibirás vía correo electrónico. Los ganadores se darán a conocer durante en Congreso Mundial del Deporte.
* Las inscripciones al Congreso Mundial del Deporte sólo se pueden hacer por internet en esta página
* Promoción vigente hasta el 4 de noviembre de 2009

Para cualquier duda o comentario escríbenos a druiz@alhuvaentretenimiento.com

El CONGRESO MUNDIAL DEL DEPORTE 2009 se realizará en la Ciudad de México los días 12, 13 y 14 de Noviembre en las instalaciones de la Universidad del valle de México, Campus Coyoacán.

(from http://coe.ilstu.edu)

In which Josh talks about his daily schedule for Gross Anatomy, Histology and Doctoring Skills, topics studied this week, comments on lecturers and the Highlight* of the Week, in which some acting is involved.

I realized I haven’t given you all a picture of my schedule for HSF, both in terms of classes and preparation. So here’s a look at what it really takes to get through HSF:

***

For a gross anatomy cadaver dissection, preparation starts the night before where I look through a few books. There’s my Grant’s Dissector, which details how to perform the dissection. And there’s the Netter’s anatomy atlas, which has lots of pictures showing where every muscle, artery, nerve, etc. Lastly, there’s the Red Book, UVM’s Gross Anatomy book which gives information about the parts we’re looking at, such as the function and innervations of each muscle.  

UVM also posts dissection videos on our online COMET system, so I watch those too to get a more concrete of idea of what to do and where everything is.

Dissections generally take place in the morning. My group usually divides up tasks in the dissection, with one person “floating” as an instructor to help give the rest of us instructions as to what to do. Sometimes we switch off, i.e. someone who was dissecting and the ”teacher” might swap places.  There’s almost always the problem we encounter not seen in the dissection video that disorients us, and then the TAs and instructors help us, and we finish on time.

***

Histology involves looking at images and identifying structures. Sounds simple. Except that look-alikes pop up a lot. So each time I look at a slide, I have to: 1) Find a “reference point” to compare everything to, 2) Determine what staining was used, since different stains make different things visible, 3) Look at each structure and pull the ol’ memory banks for it looks like, and 4) Remember all the facts about the structure I think it is.

Thankfully UVM puts up pre-lab Powerpoints that we’re expected to go through before we have our small group sesssions. These generally go over the important facts and walk us through how to identify the most important structures. I also find myself going back over our lectures, since they usually tie into Histology. If I’m studying slides of blood, I’ll also pull up our lectures on blood to recall important facts. There’s also a Blue Book, UVM’s own histology book, that helps us learn the factoids for each structure we study.

UVM also has a Virtual Microscope where we can look at slides from different organs, with annotations marked on them. So if I want to know where a Meissner’s corpuscle on skin looks like, all I have to do is pull up the appropriate slide.

Histology classes are weekly small group sessions, which usually take place in the morning on a day we’re not dissecting. For three hours, we look at slides and discuss how to find all the structures. Generally by this point we’re “fine-tuning” all the  information in our brain, instead of learning it for the first time.

***

For Doctoring Skills, generally there are readings I glance over beforehand. Unlike Histology, though, most of what we learn is in class rather than in the pre-class prep.

On a morning we’re not doing Histology or Gross Anatomy, we all meet in an auditorium. No computers on, however. We just sit and talk with the lecturers, as they walk us through the introductory Powerpoint lecture for what we’re about to do. Generally there’s also a skit where a few students act out a doctor-patient interaction, and we analyze it.

From there, we had to our small groups, where we meet with our Standardized Patients in exam rooms. These look like a typical room in a doctor’s office, but with a whiteboard as well. Yes, we have to wash our hands before touching our SPs.

Here one of us students runs through a simulated patient encounter where our SP pretends to be a patient, while another takes notes on the encounter. Then the SPs teach us how to perform a new exam until time’s up. Afterward, we students compare notes on the patient encounter, and we each write a PEN (Patient Encounter Note) and submit it. The PEN isn’t graded, but if we’re penalized if we don’t turn it in. It’s a way of helping us practice how to write good notes.

***

For the science nerds: This week we covered the cells of the nervous system, action potentials, the neuromuscular junction, muscles, motor units of muscles, bone, hematapoesis, the lymphatic system, the immune system, muscle physiology and nervous tissue.

***

A few factoids: I’ve determined that Dr. Carson Cornbook’s favorite word is “duct”. He has a habit of spelling it out as soon as he says it (“That’s a duct, d-u-c-t.”) or emphasizing the word (“Today’s intro-duct-ury lecture.”).

 Two new lecturers this week too: Dr. Forehand, who teaches us about the nervous system, and Dr. Warshaw, who’s one of the best lecturers I’ve had here in med school because of his high yet tempered energy, his exceptionally lucid teaching and his enthusiasm for muscles.

“If you don’t appreciate this,” he says as he shows us a picture of a sarcomere (the basic building block of skeletal muscle), “well, I do. It’s like a Da Vinci painting.” (I agree.)

***

Highlight of the Week: Playing Doctor in front of my class

During the Doctoring Skills lecture on how to display empathy, Dr. Rubin asks if people want to see a Doctoring Skills skit before we break into our small groups. Awkward silence. An attractive girl in our class pipes up that she does. So Dr. Rubin asks who wants to play the patient. Awkward silence. (Hey, it’s the morning.) Dr. Rubin then drafts the girl to play the patient. Then he asks who wants to play the doctor. Guess what happens. So since Dr. Rubin and I are good friends, he turns to me and says, “Josh, how about you?”

So I head down, a little intimidated since we’ve literally never spoken to each other before. But I like acting, and I have a “cheat sheet” of questions displayed on the Powerpoint screen.

After the skit, Dr. Rubin had the two of us sit down, and then asked the class what all I did and how I communicated empathy. That part is always a little weird, since you’re sitting down and listen to everyone else analyze you. But most of the comments were really positive. After that’s done, the class applauds. Since I’m a hugger, I give my acting partner a big hug before heading back to my seat.

“Josh, do you always hug your patients?” Dr. Rubin asks as I’m walking back. “Absolutely,” I reply.

*Yes, my birthday is really the highlight of the week, but that’s too special to put here. It’ll get its own post.

Josh Pothen (UVM’s Meager Med Student)

Donate $1 to The Meager Med Student!

Dan Fogel with Jean-Pierre Roy's painting

The current Firehouse Gallery exhibit “human = landscape” is one manifestation of  The Energy Project, a collaborative effort to explores the relationship between people and the world we live in: the natural world, and the landscape we’ve created to sustain and support ourselves.

So, what does that really mean.  

It means futuristic paintings of nature reclaiming the world, water and vines thriving in humanity’s ruined structures in the wake of some unnamed calamity (very “Logan’s Run” in their look and feel). It means discussions, installations, photographic essays and partnerships with other regional organizations to engage the community simultaneously on scientific and artistic levels.

This past Thursday night it also meant poetry.

Seven local and regional poets were invited to the second floor of the Firehouse to read their own work and share the verse of other poets on themes of natural phenomena, and human intervention in the natural world. The gathering was the inspiration of UVM President Dan Fogel, a poet, English literature scholar, and the husband of Firehouse board member Rachel Kahn-Fogel. His introduction to the event drew an elegant parallel between the Industrial Revolution and the writings of Romantic poets Keats, Shelley, Byron, Wordsworth and Coleridge. Later in the evening against the backdrop of a large dystopian Jean-Pierre Roy landscape, Fogel concluded his reading with Percy Shelley’s evocative Ode to the West Wind.

Other readings came from Irish poet Angela Patten; Antonello Borra (UVM Italian professor); Daniel Lusk; Isaac Cates (who began with an inspired reading of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 73…see below); and UVM Spanish professor Tina Escaja in a dual presentation with translator Helen Wagg.

This isn’t the kind of event that’s conceived to present solutions or a thorough scientific examination of the topic at hand. But, as always with the artist’s special charge in the world to observe and interpret life’s offerings, the words and thoughts carefully shaped and shared in the human = landscape poetry reading provided something equally intellectual and certainly as meaningful as any technical discourse: perspective.

(The Human = Landscape exhibit is open through October 24th at Burlington’s Firehouse Gallery.)

~ ~ ~

Sonnet 73

That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou see’st the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west;
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death’s second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou see’st the glowing of such fire,
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the death-bed, whereon it must expire,
Consum’d with that which it was nourish’d by.
This thou perceiv’st, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well, which thou must leave ere long.

Did you know the model T produced by Ford starting in 1909 gets the same mpg as a 2010 F-150. Now that’s what I call innovation! A lot of people have been looking at alternatives. In Florida the retirment community has tried to cut back on costs and hold on to their social security cheese. Don’t be scared, grandpa is going green… I’m electric baby!

For two games last weekend, senior defenseman Melanie Greene saw her University of Vermont women’s hockey games through a new facemask: that of a goaltender.

It was a revealing and frightening perspective, even if her view of UVM’s two wins over Union was only from the bench.

Greene’s willingness to suit up in the pads was an example of her “team first” approach to the sport, agreeing to back up starter Kristen Olychuck after the Catamounts’ other goalies, Caitlin Whitlock and Ilana Friedman, were sidelined with injuries.

Whitlock has yet to practice as the result of a lower back issue. Friedman went down, literally, when a teammate’s shot in practice struck her in the forehead. She suffered a minor concussion.

That left coach Tim Bothwell and his staff scrambling for alternatives since a team must have two goaltenders dressed and ready to play at the start of a game. Since Greene wasn’t scheduled to play the first game against Union, he turned to her.

“Tim approached me and said we’re in a pinch and wanted to know how (I) would feel about dressing as backup goalie,” Greene said. “It was something I never thought I would do here in my four years here, but I did.

“I just kind of went with it,” she said, adding she wondered, “Is he serious?

“I said to him, ‘Team first.’ If that’s what needs to be done for the team, then I’ve got to do it and no questions asked.”

“She didn’t hesitate for a second. She said, ‘Team first; they need me; I’m going to do it’,” confirmed Bothwell, who briefly toyed with the idea of cancelling the last practice out of concern something might befall Olychuck.

The first challenge was strapping on all the equipment she had never worn.

“Thankfully, Ilana … came in and I had the pads on. I asked how I did and she said, ‘You did all right. You did fine’,” Greene said. “The toughest part was putting my jersey on. Once all the equipment was on, I was stuck and I needed someone to help me out there. It got hung up on my pads and I had to ask some teammates to help me out.”

Then came the warm-ups.

“I took actually a few shots out there,” Green said. “I just stood in front of the net and hoped my size would take up the net and they’d maybe hit me.”

It was, she said, a terrifying few minutes.

“I think I closed my eyes on every shot,” she said. “I have huge new respect for goalies. They definitely take huge punishment every day out there. I’ll make sure to keep my shots lower now.”

In Friday’s tight 2-0 win, Greene wanted nothing to do with ice time.

“It was, ‘Don’t let anything happen’,” she said.

“The thought crossed my mind (Saturday). We’re up 4-1, maybe (coach) will throw me in for the tailend of the game,” she said, adding, “If he did say that, I think I probably still would have panicked.”

She stayed on the bench.

Greene will be back at her normal position this weekend when UVM hosts fourth-ranked Clarkson on Friday at 7 and Saturday at 4 p.m. Friedman has been cleared to play and Greene’s goaltending career is just a memory she’ll always have.

Courtesy of collegequidditch.com

[Edit 10/16, 7 pm: Revised the time and location of the match.]

For all of you Quidditch junkies looking for something to do this Saturday, Middlebury Quidditch is making the short drive north to Burlington to scrimmage the University of Vermont.  The match is scheduled to start at 12:45 pm, and is going to take place on the Central Campus Fields (between the Davis Center and Fletcher Allen.)

UVM Quidditch, in its first year, is also attending the Third Annual Quidditch World Cup on Sunday, October 25, at Middlebury College.  As many as 26 teams are expected to compete in the World Cup, and according to estimates from Quidditch Commissioners Charlie Hofmann, Chris Free, and Kate Olen, approximately 2,500 spectators are expected to attend.

The University of Vermont is a formidable D-I foe in most sports…but will they add Quidditch to the highlight reel?

Portland will be jamming Sunday, November 29, as the improvisational band Phish hits Portland for one night only between New York gigs. With a very devoted fan base, the Cumberland County Civic Center is sure to be mobbed with a sell-out crowd. Doors open at 6:30pm and the show starts at 7:30pm.

A limited number of tickets are available directly through Phish Tickets’ online ticketing system. The ticket request period is currently underway and will end Friday, October 16th at 5:00pm EST.

Tickets will go on sale to the public on Saturday, October 24th at 9:00am EST. Tickets can be purchased online at http://www.ticketmaster.com. Tickets may also be purchased, with no service charge, at the venue box office (Mon – Fri 9:30am – 5:00pm and Saturday 9am – 4pm) and select TicketMaster outlets.

General Admission Floor and Reserved stands tickets are $50.00 each. All those taping the performance must purchase general admission tickets. Please visit www.phish.com for more information and other fall tour dates.

(from bookblogs.ning.com)

In which Josh talks more about the amount of information in HSF, cadavers, lectures, Embryology, Medical Imaging, Histology, Bagel Rounds with an orthopedic surgeon, and the Highlight of the Week.  

They weren’t kidding about the amount of information in HSF. Refer back to the previous post about the cadaver dissections, lectures and Doctoring Skills. Now imagine adding on everything I’m about to describe. It’s not that this information is particularly tricky, mind you. Most of it is pretty simple. It’s just the fact that there’s so much of it that makes the workload hard.  

For most people, this amount of information would be torture. For me, the struggle is actually in taking time OFF because I love reviewing this stuff so much.

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Cadaver dissections continue throughout most days of the week. I mentioned last time that there were seven of us assigned to a cadaver. On Thursday, however, we were split into two groups: A and B. A had to do Doctoring Skills, while B (my group) had to do a particular dissection.

This is the basic pattern of the week. Sometimes we’re all together. Sometimes we’re not. When we’re not, someone from group B is assigned to teach group A the next day. Then group A does a dissection alone, and someone from group A is assigned to teach group B the next day. The teaching duties are rotated so that no one person gets stuck doing the teaching all the time.

In our dissections, most of our work is spent cleaning fat out of the body so we can see all the muscles, arteries, nerves, etc. You have to be careful, though, because sometimes what you think is fat is actually a nerve. There are techniques to help with this, but they take time. But if you have patience, it’s really rewarding at the end of the day when you look at how

Yes, I realize what I do sounds macabre, so I tend not to talk about it too much. My housemates are a little more understanding and interested. One of them, a mechanic, asked me a little about the cadavers, so I told him a little about what we do. He wisely noted, “The level of interest I have about your cadaver is probably about the same level of interest you have in a car engine.” It’s true. In both our cases, we’re happy to have someone else “look under the hood”.

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For the Science Nerds: Lectures this week discussed connective tissue, spinal nerves, and a few topics I’m going to expand on below.

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Embryology is a weekly lecture series designed to teach us how a human is formed from a fertilized egg (or zygote). Our lecturer is a pathologist Dr. Waters. 

This week she taught us what happens in the first month or so after fertilization.  At one point, she describes the embryo as looking like a “double bubble.” She then adds, “Bubble is not an accepted embryological term.”

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Medical Imaging is designed to teach us how to read X-rays, MRIs, cat scans, etc. Apparently there are many people who graduate from med school without learning how to read them.

Dr. Janice Gallant and Dr. Szilva are our teachers, with Dr. Szilva giving the majority of the lecture. No superhero costume this time, but she still has her wacky humor. She tells us how a father brought in his son and told her the boy had swallowed a penny.  ”I asked him how much he wanted it.” 

Here’s an interesting tidbit for everyone: Suppose you see a radiograph (i.e. X-ray film) of a person’s belly, and you see an object that looks like it’s in the middle of the belly. Does that mean it’s actually inside the belly? Nope, because the object could be outside the person, since the X-ray is “compressing” the 3D picture into a 2D film. If, however, you have a radiograph (X-ray) from another view, then you can tell whether it’s inside or not.  

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But..what is Histology, you ask? Why, it’s nothing more than learning what different body parts look like under microscopes. This week, we learn about the different types of skin, where you might find them in the body, and what samples from those body parts might look like under a microscope.

To learn this information, we meet in small groups and go through many different slides together and discuss how to tell them apart. Thankfully, UVM also provides Powerpoints that I find extremely helpful for learning how to visualize everything, in case you still don’t comprehend everything after the small group.

I suppose to describe this sounds boring to most. What may interest you is that many microscopes nowadays are virtual. You no longer squint your eye and look through the eyepiece. Now the images from the microscope are displayed on a computer screen, and you use your mouse to zoom in, move the slide around, etc.

So when we’re asked to look at pictures of slides on our computer screens instead of looking directly under the microscope, we’re not cheating. We’re simply up to date.

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Bagel Rounds are special events where UVM gives us bagels and drinks around lunchtime, followed by a speaker or a discussion. You may remember a previous post where I talked about a film we saw about race. There was a bagel round after that too to discuss it.

This time they brought in Dr. John Braun, an orthopedic surgeon who talked about scoliosis and spinal fusion surgeries. Given my story, this was right up my alley. Apparently they are working on the possibility of fusionless surgeries for teenagers with scoliosis, using staples to help the spine straighten as the spine continues to grow.

Incidentally, there is now a test for genetic markers that predispose your scoliosis curve to grow to the point where they  need to operate. I must remember to take it.

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Highlight of the Week: The Magnificent Ellen

Dr. Ellen Cornbrooks, who will heretofore on this blog be referred to as “The Magnificent Ellen”, is continually described by med school classes as being terrific. I didn’t realize how terrific until Thursday’s lab dissection.

There we were, dissecting stuff. Then she came, wheeling a cart with scapular bones in it. She asked my table and some of the nearby ones if we wanted to get an explanation of the scapular muscles. (Keep in mind we hadn’t really talked with her before.) Sure, we say, and we move over to her.

As she explains how all the muscles connect, what they do and why they’re important, a huge crowd slowly forms around her. Ellen, you see, has the ability to take this huge list of muscles, bones, etc., and show us how they all relate. Her explanations are not only as clear as crystal water, but they help us remember all the details. She helps us see the big picture, and better, she makes it fascinating and clinically relevant. Not only do I know remember all the muscles involved in the rotator cuff, but I can now tell you why a tear there could be a career-ending injury for an athlete.

If I could, I would follow her around for the rest of my med school career, learning tidbits about the human body. Yes, I know I’ve only met her this past week. But from everything I’ve heard and seen, The Magnificent Ellen is one of UVM’s best teachers and true heroes.

Josh Pothen (UVM’s Meager Med Student)

Make sure to scroll below for today’s news.  Tomorrow I’ll be unveiling my pick to win Hockey East, Thursday will be my lengthy UMass preview, and Friday will be a look at this weekend’s game.

Vermont Catamounts

Last year Vermont was an offensive force that made it all the way to Washington DC for the Frozen Four. This year they’ll try to make up for the loss of 40% of their goal production from last season. Yet perhaps they don’t really have to score as much as last year and still be successful.

Viktor Stalberg was one of Hockey East’s best scoring 24 goals in 39 games, but he took the opportunity to jump to the Maple Leafs instead of coming back for his senior year. UMass killer Peter Lenes and his 31 points will also be missed after his graduation this spring. Look for Brian Roloff and Justin Milo to do their best to step in for the offseason losses. Does the scoring touch run in the Stalberg family? We’ll find out as little brother Sebastian arrives on the Burlington campus this season. But while offense was the solution last year UVM could become one of the better defensive teams this year. They return every defenseman who played significant minutes last year but the biggest asset will be in net where Rob Madore is coming off a stellar freshman year. After splitting time with Kevin Spillane last season look for Madore to get the catamount’s share of the playing time this season (awful pun, but I had to do it).

After an opening series out at Denver to start the season UVM will have a relatively soft non-conference schedule filled with ECAC teams and the participants in their tournament. The annual Turkey Tuesday Tilt against UMass will take place at the Gutt this season. The two teams will then meet up for the balance of the series in late January at the Mullins.

If UVM can make the transition from offensive team to defensive team they might be able to make up for the loss of Stalberg. This will not make me popular on Comm Ave but I thought Madore was the most impressive freshman goaltender in the conference last year. A seasoned defensive group in front of him should only improve his stats.

Boston University Terriers

With the flip of the wrist and a flutter of the puck the BU Terriers were champions last year, their first since 1995 and fifth total. The Terriers were flat out dominant towards the end of the season losing just once from mid-January on. But success comes with a price and not only does BU have to fill the spots of Hobey Baker winner Matt Gilroy and Brian Strait on one of the most suffocating defenses in recent years, but they lose over half of their goal production.

Gone are seniors Brandon Yip, Brian Lawrence, and Chris Higgins but the biggest loss up front is Colin Wilson who joined the Predators over the offseason. But, if there’s one thing BU always seems to have is plenty of depth. Nick Bonino was somewhat overshadowed by Wilson but proved to be nearly as dangerous. Zach Cohen and Vinny Saponari will have to step up their games. Also don’t be surprised to see freshman Alex Chaisson make an immediate impact. Gilroy and Straits departures will hurt but BU was able to keep Kevin Shattenkirk in school and he and Colby Cohen will be counted on to lead what is still one of the best defenses in the league. Kieran Millan won rookie of the year but there is still debate as to how much of that was him and how much he owed to the guys in front of him. Regardless if the defense plays to its potential he’ll be able to enjoy a season similar to last year.

BU oddly will be raising their banner during an exhibition game against the USNDPT and will open their regular season with the October 16th tilt in the Mullins Center. They’ll then head home to play CCHA powers Michigan and Notre Dame. Their non-conference highlights also include a repeat of last year’s game against Cornell at Madison Square Garden and of course there’s always the Beanpot. UMass will be at the Agganis right after New Years and directly before the Beanpot semis for the endless debate of whether it is good, bad, or indifferent to meet up with a Beanpot team before, during, or after the tournament. Personally, I don’t think it makes a difference.

It’s amazing to think you can lose a Hobey Baker winning defenseman and so much of your goal scoring and still be expected to compete for a league title. Yet that’s exactly what I think BU will do considering they’ll have fourteen NHL draft picks on their roster and an excellent incoming class. My gut tells me they’ll go as far as their ability to keep the opposing team away from the net.

My picks:
#3 Boston University Terriers
#4 Vermont Catamounts
#5 New Hampshire Wildcats
#6 Massachusetts Minutemen (preview later this week)
#7 Northeastern Huskies
#8 Maine Black Bears
#9 Merrimack Warriors
#10 Providence Friars

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The first USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine poll is out and they have Frozen Four finalist Miami as the team to beat.  Interesting that they got considerably less first place votes than the next two teams.  Denver, BU, Michigan, and Notre Dame round out the top 5.  Hockey East representation besides BU is found with Lowell at #10, BC at #12, UVM is #15, and UNH and Northeastern falling under Also Receiving Votes.

And the ECAC had its media day and released its preseason polls with UMass opponent Yale picked first in both the coaches and media poll.  Other 09-10 foes include Union at #6 in both polls, RPI picked 8th in the coaches and 10th in the media, and Quinnipiac 8th and 11th respectively.

Hockey East will hold their Media Day tomorrow.

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The CCHA which implemented shootouts last season as part of their league games to avoid ties has readjusted how it’s awarding points this year.  Lipstick on a pig.  I hate having games decided by skills competitions.  Why breakaways?  Why not set up the targets in the corners of the net or break out the radar gun for hardest shot?  It’s like a football game being decided by which quarterback can throw more passes through a tire hanging from a tree.  I don’t like it.

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Not surprisingly Jon Quick has won the starting goaltending job for LA.

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Saturday’s opponent the UNB Varsity Reds will be playing Mike Kostka and the Portland Pirates tomorrow.  Considering that UMass beat this team 6-0 last year I’d hate to see what an AHL team is capable of against them.  They seem to be under the impression that our mascot is the Attack.

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I meant to post about TV this morning as well as Hockey East released the full television schedule yesterday.  UMass will be on TV eight times next season; two on local channels, three on NESN, and three will be broadcast nationally on ESPNU (thankfully now available on Comcast).

The series begins with an architectural detail of my favorite building on the UVM campus: Billings Library designed by architect Henry Hobson Richardson.  (Click for a larger image.)

Billings Library, UVM, architect Henry Hobson Richardson.

The bobwhite chicks are about a week old now and they’re already getting little feather quills on their wings. They’re also faster than any quail chick I’ve ever had before, which doesn’t make for easy picturetaking! The Vermont nights are starting to get pretty harsh, so I took the time yesterday to move the family into my bedroom, where they will stay for the winter. It was a pretty stressful ordeal, particularly for the mother, whose Anger Meter went off the charts. She almost escaped at one point, but she was too tired to fly away so I managed to snatch her. Close call! She and the rest have all settled in well, although if I get any closer than a yard to their cage, she will puff out her feathers until she’s as big as a football. I’m afraid we’ll never be friends again until the babies are all grown up.

They refuse to get off their babies when I’m around. In another two weeks, I suspect that the chicks will be too big for them to sit on anymore, in which case I will be ready with my camera!

Anyone recognize the wire cage? It once belonged to the rabbit. The wire is much too wide for the babies– they could easily escape– so I boarded it up with some thin decorative plywood that one of my neighbors was getting rid of. I’m a big fan of reusing other people’s trash. I sealed the gaps on the sides with hotglue in the attempt to reduce the mess from shavings. So far, so good.

In other news, today I woke early to take advantage of an optional field trip to The Farm Between with my Ecological Agriculture class. Only four other girls showed up for the event, so it was like a private tour. I didn’t get tons of pictures since I didn’t want to seem too much like a tourist, but I managed to get a few before we left.

The Farm Between is an organic CSA farm that attempts to achieve a high level of sustainability. It is located right on the border between Jeffersonville and Cambridge, which is how it got its name.

Horses are used for plowing as well as for pleasure.

The crew at lunch.

The fields. Notice that it is a bunch of different kinds of crops all mixed together, versus the rows and rows of the same crops that you see in conventional monoculture farming. Diversity is the spice of life and keeps ecosystems functioning.

It is the end of the season so most crops are already harvested or being left to return to the soil. John Hayden discussed the benefits of weeds, as well; as long as they are kept at bay during the beginning of the season when plants are still small, they can actually be beneficial to the harvest by acting as fertilizer for the next season. Larger-leafed weeds that are easier to weed actually help keep the grasses– which are harder to weed– at bay. Weeds are your friend!

He started originally as a livestock farm but has since switched over to vegetables. He now raises chickens for eggs and rabbits. The latter play a keystone role in his farm ecosystem since he lets them run out in big wire pens on his fields, where they consume the leftovers of this years crop and poop out “slow release fertilizer.” Rabbit droppings are extremely rich in nitrogen and other nutrients. He sells the rabbit meat in the end of the year for a profit. (I don’t really approve with this last part, but I agree with his strategy in general.)

John put us to work harvesting potatoes and pumpkins. We were allowed to take all the “less than perfect” ones, and we could also help ourselves to the remainder of kale and cabbage in the field.

It was a truly educational and inspiration experience. Some day, I want to have a farm like this.

In my Graduate Historiography class, we’ve been assigned a wide range of books. Each professor in the History Department has chosen one, and comes in as a guest facilitator for the class discussion of their chosen text. It’s a great way to meet the professors, and also means that we’re reading a selection of texts that’s extremely diverse, both in terms of subject matter as well as format.

The book I read for this week’s class was quite interesting and enlightening for a number of reasons. It’s about both Vermont (my enthusiastically adopted home), the provision of child welfare (my job for the past few years with HowardCenter), and was written as the expansion of a Masters thesis done by a student of UVM’s History MA program (what I’d ultimately like to do). Entitled Breeding Better Vermonters: The Eugenics Project in the Green Mountain State, this book by Nancy Gallagher traces the life and times of Eugenics Survey of Vermont director and UVM Zoology Professor Henry Perkins as he both instigated and responded to developments in the field of eugenics in the 1920s and -30s.

In the process of telling Perkins’ story (a tale littered with backdrops familiar to anyone who lives in Vermont or has gone to UVM), Gallagher exposes the flow of eugenic thinking within the agendas of the Progressive movement of the early 20th century. Beginning with a general sense of “Race Suicide” (as promulgated by such illustrious figures as President Theodore Roosevelt) in which the poor, dumb, and therefore less fit were out-breeding the superior white Anglo-Saxon race upon which America’s prosperity was based, eugenics developed as a science with the mission of investigating and reversing this trend. Eugenics researchers thus took the very basic knowledge of heredity of the time and set out with the purpose of determining the exact nature of well- and poorly-bred people with the intent of then encouraging public health initiatives that favored the former over the latter. To this end, eugenicists encouraged the passage of Sterilization Laws for the “unfit” and “feebleminded”, the expansion and professionalization of a social work/human services bureaucracy that could mediate and control “unfit” groups, etc.

It was with this agenda initially in mind that Perkins obtained support and funding for the Eugenics Survey of Vermont. In the beginning, the Survey investigated families with reputations as problematic with charity workers and their communities. These families existed at the fringes of “respectable” society, and Gallagher indicates that some of them might’ve been Abenaki native Americans who’s “antisocial” behavior was their attempt to preserve some semblance of their identity and culture as a tiny minority, while others were French Canadians against whom the Anglo-Saxon elite of Vermont held many prejudices.

As the survey progressed over the years, however, the American academic community’s opinion of Eugenics began shifting, and a sociological explanation for poverty and deviant behavior as the result of poor living and developmental conditions began to gain credence at the expense of hereditary justifications. Perkins responded to this change by shifting the Survey’s focus in that direction, and ultimately, as the Nazi racial hygene discredited eugenics in many folks’ eyes as a pseudo-science, came to embrace the position that social injustices were so confounding that it was virtually impossible to parse out hereditary contributions to “anti-social” behavior.  In the meantime, however, Vermont passed a “voluntary” sterilization act in the early 1930s, in which institutionalized people could be released into society in exchange for agreeing to be sterilized.  Perkins’ supposed “change of heart” wasn’t sufficient motivation for him to change his opinion on (or call for the repeal of) those sterilization laws, and poor and indigenous Vermonters continued to be reproductively handicapped by the State into the 1960s.  The effects of this regime still resonate to this day; a classmate of Abenaki descent mentioned during our discussion of the book that older people in her community still refer to neutering a pet as “giving it the Perkins treatment”.

For anyone with an interest in Vermont, Eugenics, or the unintended consequences of middle-class do-gooderism, Breeding Better Vermonters is a profoundly enlightening look into a dark, rarely discussed chapter in Vermont’s (and America’s) history.  With our society’s increasingly deep knowledge of genetics and heredity that would leave the eugenicists of the 1930s in awe, Gallagher raises vital questions, issues, and experiences that we can lose sight of only at the risk of grave peril.  It’s a history that we cannot afford to repeat.