This is my role in OPMSA:
- Maintain close liaison with the editors and staffs of all student publications.
- Contact the mass media with regard to newsworthy events of the OPMSA under the direction of the Executive Board.
- Collect, publish, and distribute items for OPMSA announcements.
- Notify all participants of upcoming and pertinent meetings.
- Responsible for FootPrints newspaper, two (2) issues/year, along with KSUCPM staff editor.
- Assist other OPMSA officers in the performance of their duties.
- Attend all OPMSA Executive Board meetings.
- Co-editor of OPMSA website in conjunction with Secretary, making changes and updates when needed and maintain contact with KSUCPM Webmaster.
Hometown: I'm from Calgary, Alberta, Canada but don't hate me for being a canuck. Even though we say things like 'eh' and 'hoser', we've also contributed a lot to the world like inventing poutine, the manure spreader, basketball, Insulin, IMAX and Justin Beiber.
About me: Since I'm the old guy of the group, I decided a few years ago to abandon any semblance of being cool. It dawned on me that now that I no longer need to get dates (I'm married) I am able to start doing things I love again like collecting comics, playing video games, building forts in the backyard and all types of other non-sense. I am also an avid reader so if you want to find me on Goodreads, here you go. Unlike most of my comrades I also have children, 3 to be exact. Despite what you may think, it doesn't make it any tougher because also unlike my colleagues, I get to go home to slobbery kisses and boogery noses which in my opinion is just about the best thing in the world. I studied Complementary and Alternative Health at Arizona State (a program now defunct - they retired it after they decided they had graduated the perfect student).
Why I decided to become a podiatrist: If you want to be a physician, podiatry is the only medical specialty where you are trained from the beginning to be exactly what you want to be. That sounds like a pretty smart thing to do. I also think it's pretty neat.
My hero: Michael J. Fox. Besides the fact that he has already been to 2015 (proving the Mayans wrong) and all the way back to 1885, he has also proved that despite adversity you can overcome and make a significant difference in the world. He is proof to me that you can be happy no matter what hits you. As the man himself said, “It may seem hard to believe, but it's catastrophe that offers the most promise for an even richer life. This is the gateway to the good stuff. In other words, you never truly know which way the wind is blowing until the sh#! hits the fan.”
My amazing talent: Unless owning an incredibly large collection of comics can be considered a talent, I have none. Armpit farts with my son maybe....
Advice I'd give new podiatry students: Accomplishment without joy is empty. Celebrate your success, embrace happiness and work hard. Work alone is not a recipe for success.
My favorite restaurant in CLE: Asking a fat guy what his favorite restaurant is is like asking a parent which one is their favorite child (my youngest daughter). Okay, all kidding aside, I think Bac in Tremont is probably my favorite but Melt is the one I'd tell people the need to check out if they come to town.
My favorite book: Who wrote these questions!? I can hardly narrow it down to one - Ready Player One by Ernest Cline and Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese probably top the list among many others. Currently I'm reading I, Robot by Isaac Asimov, Farseed by Pamela Seargent, and Railsea by China Mieville (the only of these 3 I'd recommend so far is I, Robot). I'm a book geek and spend more time reading than pretty much anything else.
What I do when a test week is over: Go on daddy-daughter and daddy-son dates with each of my kids since I only see them about 5 minutes a day during test week. It's a good excuse to get ice cream or some other tasty goodie and let them spend some one on one time with me. Otherwise I'll pick up a good book and read.
Best study music: Believe it or not I study to heavy metal (Slipknot, Pantera, Five Finger Death Punch or something like that) but when it gets down to crunch time a few hours before the test and I'm on the edge of tears, I tone it down with some Snow Patrol, Amos Lee or even some good classical (Brahms or Chopin)
If I have 30 minutes of free time this is what I will be doing: Reading a book. Not non-fiction like Kartick, but something that takes me out of reality.
Best advice I was ever given: When I was a young college student I was having a hard time figuring out how to get a specific girl interested in me so my mom gave me the best advice of my life: "Less talk. More Action." Obviously the context was different but I think that advice that applies to almost any scenario in life. Less talk, more action.
