In an effort to find a balance between my personal daily note taking and the blogging I used to do, I’m trying something different: a brief summary of the past month along with a selection of photos. In theory I may retroactively make some of these for the prior months, but we’ll start with May 2026!

Med school journey

The main personal milestone this month was finishing two more classes May 12. Because I haven’t been journaling publicly, I’ll briefly mention I have been taking classes at UC Berkeley Extension since January of last year in an effort to prepare to apply to med schools next year. I managed to finish eight classes last year. This semester I started with only two, intending to start an asynchronous one once I got rolling. But I allowed my note taking and flashcards to grow to fill my available time, alas. It was great, but a lot! Anyway, I got an A+ in biochemistry (which covered roughly what the first semester biochem covered that I had at my college 18 years ago) and an A in molecular cellular biology. The latter class was mostly new to me. I learned so much, it was SO fascinating, but I think much of it is beyond what I would need for the MCAT. It’s fine though, I really enjoyed it.

My Anki flashcards are a bit of a disaster at the moment with roughly 6,000 cards due, as this semester I again had to resort to focusing only on the cards I was generating for this content. I also did not completely finish taking notes on 2 chapters for each class, and ideally I will go back and do that. But now that my classes are done, I am going to start bringing in the cards I have been neglecting. I hoped to get completely caught up on all the content from last year by the end of the month, but I did not get anywhere close to that unfortunately. I did spend 61 hours on flashcards this month. I thought maybe I could do 6 hours a day instead of 2 though. I am trying not to freak out about it. The entire point of not applying to med school this year was so I could relax just a little bit before I start the next many many years of school. But I don’t want to slip too much!

I have not done any more shadowing recently, but I do need to figure out dates for when I will try to visit Frank up in Seattle.

Household

Regarding my household I am also trying to manage: A temporary roommate from Berkeley moved in, who will be here roughly 2 of the next 3 months. Another roommate who had been living here since last November but who was unable to pay since moving in finally moved out after briefly being moved to my office and garage when the paying Berkeley student moved in.

Alan went with Sean to the Dominican Republic for a 5 day trip he won.

We dog sat three dogs this month: Armie for 10 days, then Zuko for 10 days, then Vera for a long weekend. I decided to get Sky genotyped with Embark in hopes it helps someone want to adopt him.

Fitness

I kept about the same pace of workouts as last month, with 8 weightlifting sessions and then 2 running. I finally started training for the 50K I’ll do at Burning Man this year hopefully. Once training is underway and I am sure, I will actually sign up.

Movies

Now that I have a break from classes, I have been trying to sneak some film watching in! I got 7 in May:

• 2026-05-12: Sideways (2004): Watched over the course of a few days, last chunk with Alan. I liked it. Quite sad and reflective. Made me want to taste a wine or two.
• 2026-05-22: Outerlands (2025): Watched with Alan. Was slow and sad, about what I expected.
• 2026-05-24: The Whale (2022): Watched with Stephen and Mankwai. Started with Alan as well, but he left soon into it, not sure why. Mankwai was sniffling and blowing nose constantly through the movie as well due to allergies or something. Anyway. This film was an unexpected trip. The first stop was before it started, as I tried to confirm my player was not screwing up the aspect ratio and the colors. Accepting this was how it was supposed to be, we continued. It was a slow build, but I was pulled in. Much was sad, but made me reflect on people I know and on myself. Brendan Fraser’s performance was so good. And when I thought my player was glitching again and I almost stopped it, it ended. All I could say was: Wow!
• 2026-05-28: Dear Tenant (2020): Watched with Alan. Good but sad story.
• 2026-05-29: 12 Angry Men (1957): Watched alone. For a no frills black-and-white film taking place mostly in one room, this was quite funny and touching. There was quite a bit of yelling, yes, but it was believable. I laughed out loud twice and teared up at one unexpected point. I wished we could have seen the verdict readout, but I appreciate the decision.
• 2026-05-29: Ghost In The Shell (2017): Watched alone. Saw it in theaters years ago and had forgotten most of it since. So this time, I enjoyed it for the visuals and somewhat for the story. Makes you think about where we are headed with this “AI” crap!
• 2026-05-31: Marty Supreme (2025): Watched mostly alone across a few days. I did enjoy getting a sense of how life may have been in the 1950s. I got a big laugh at the scene depicting shared phone lines and needing to ask the people from another apartment in the building to hang up the phone so you could make a call. But man, Marty is so freaking obnoxious, it drove me crazy! I’m sure I’m in the minority, but I don’t feel the need to watch it again. :-)

Photos

View of downtown San Francisco from Calvin's

Electroluxx coat check at the Midway with paper bags

Discovering the new dog Nile likes to explore the garden supplies.

Sky trying to get me up to let them out.

Studying my flashcards with Armie, who is staying with us for a week.

I eat a lot of chick peas these days, as a pretty easy and tasty protein source while being vegetarian.

Sweet little Armie

More studying, but in the hammock now that it's warm again.

Repairing the treadmill again, this time to replace the graphite brushes and the belt again.

Repairing the treadmill again, this time to replace the graphite brushes and the belt again.

The loss of elasticity of this strap has been annoying me, so I bought a roll of new stuff and sewed it in. I should have done that sooner!

But now I want to do something about these heel straps.

The state of some of my running sandals

The state of some of my running sandals. I have been wearing these for walking for quite a while, but they have not formed to my feet at all. They still just feel like flappy flat pieces of hard material. Tim suggested I might just need to run in them more.

Makeshift extra sleeping area in my garage

Repairing the air mattress with glue and tape.

Repairing the air mattress with glue and tape.

Repairing the air mattress with glue and tape.

Mid-month selfie

Trying to figure out what to do with my kale forest so I can make room for more crops.

I enjoy finding these little oxalis bulbs all over the place, but this is the first time I pulled out a string of them.

Studying on the couch with all the dogs, including crazy Zuko, who is staying with us for a bit more than a week.

Making some cockroach traps for the garage :-(

Walking the dogs at sunset

How did I bite such a big chunk out of my lip!?

Ruffie, Nyall and Zuko resting while I treadmill.

Filling capsules with psillium husk to save a bit of money. But it takes a lot of time!

Sky, Ruffie, Niall and Zuko

Transplanting peppers and tomatoes into slightly larger pots that I will just keep outside to hopefully avoid some transplant shock I have trouble with.

Out for a run in Anthony Chabot Regional Park

Out for a run in Anthony Chabot Regional Park

Fire prevention goats in Anthony Chabot Regional Park

One of the fire prevention goats got outside the fence in Anthony Chabot Regional Park. I got in touch with the rangers after I got back and sent them the photo with the coordinates.

One of the fire prevention goats got outside the fence in Anthony Chabot Regional Park. I got in touch with the rangers after I got back and sent them the photo with the coordinates.

I planted 15 types of herb to grow potentially inside or at least just in these pots outside.

Walking four dogs at once

Trying to keep Zuko nearby and out of trouble while I am on the treadmill.

Alan and I finally visited baby Noato

Alan learned we can't use the blender for soaking beans.

Out for a run in Reinhardt Regional Redwood Forest

Out for a run in Reinhardt Regional Redwood Forest

Out for a run in Reinhardt Regional Redwood Forest

Out for a run in Reinhardt Regional Redwood Forest

Starting corn indoors, which is really not necessary.

Studying in the hammock with Kiko and Ruffie

Ruffie and Vera at the neighbor's mom's birthday

Vera enjoying being 15!

Ruffie and Sky were super interested in the squirrel holes

I finally went to Napa, with Derreck and Benson and Alan

Derreck was inspired to want a wine cooler, and I volunteered to let him take ours. It's underutilized and we could use the space for food storage.