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I am not a number.

I was watching some people parallel park the other day. It blows my mind--really--how bad people are at driving. One guy tried to park his little compact in a huge space. He put his nose straight in and then tried to back up and straighten himself out. He went back and forth a few times, angling his car this way and that until he ended up in the middle of the street. Then he pulled forward and tried to back into it. He angled too sharply and ended up running right into the curb. He pulled forward and backed into it again and again with no progress. Finally, flustered, he gave up and sped away from the spot.

Another girl tried to park her car in the first spot on the row. She pulled up along the length of curb in front of the spot and her friend jumped out to spot her. The girl tried to back up slowly into the spot--a technique that required driving straight for about 10 feet--but ended up rubbing and scraping her car against the curb before she made it the entire distance. So she pulled forward and tried again. This time, she decided to try something new and cut her tires back and forth. She bumped into the curb a few times while her friend guided her efforts. Without using hand signals. And without actually communicating. Women, right? In the end, I left. It was just to painful to watch her idle backwards into the curb repeatedly.

Both drivers were Asian, of course.This week, I got to help make this comic. It was pretty cool.

But, more excitingly, I might get to shadow some physicians. Battlefield physicians. In Afghanistan. Maybe. We're starting to look into the details that would allow for such a thing, which would be pretty damn exciting. How many people get the opportunity to do that? I'd get to jump out and see some real trauma. Some real emergency medicine. I don't think I'd make a very good hostage for insurgents, though.

I mean, how silly would they look when they release a video of their hostage prefacing his recording with, "Dear diary..."

I think I've been getting more hostile and surly lately. These last few weeks, I guess. I should probably get a handle on that. Don't want people to get jaded. Oh well. We'll see what happens.

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