My new pet's name is peeves! So now that I finished cramming two years of medicine into my head in the span of 4 weeks for a licensing exam, I must do a little rant. There were two main issues that actually frustrated me during this exam period. The first being Adobe Professional (7.0). Now as some people know, I study purely off my laptop. All of my notes & books are in adobe format. Adobe makes me angry. Why? Well because no matter how good my computer is, no matter what year I buy a computer, it seems the newer and faster processors, and more RAM can't handle the new ways that the Adobe software engineers come up with to make their product slow and sluggish. In all honesty, when I go to buy a new laptop, I don't just look at the specs, but I do one main test: open an adobe file on the computer and see how long it takes. I can only imagine these software engineers sitting around, coming up with new 'creative' ways of making Adobe more user friendly and full of new options, and probably getting some weird sexual gratification out of it. Look! just make the product work in a reasonable speed and not eat up 90% of my RAM.
My second pet peeve would be related to medicine. When you have to cram everything known in medicine into your head, you appreciate it when the name of the disease gives away what the disease is all about. For example "X-linked agammaglobulinemia." tells me it affects men, and it means your immune system doesn't work. Great! the name gives it away for me. But when you get stuff like "Paget's disease" - what memory does that trigger in my head? It triggers the frustration memory. Why? Well because Mr. Paget has several diseases named after him - Paget's disease of the bones, Paget's disease of the nipple, and Paget's cyst. Honestly, why! Clearly they weren't thinking of med students when these names were made up. Make the name of diseases memorable! Med students these days have a lot more to learn than they did 100 years ago, so any help would be appreciated. Honestly, if I discover some disease down the road, I'm not going to stamp my last name on it. Instead I'll make it obvious, i.e. itchy bum syndrome. Treatment? stop sitting there waiting for Adobe to load your file.
I have a new pet!
on Friday, August 29, 2008Hug addiction # 2!
on Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Well back to hugging my books.
This really blows
on Saturday, July 26, 2008
There are inventions that are so amazing and practical, i.e. like Velcro, and some inventions that I simply don't comprehend. One of those inventions would be the leaf blower. It's unbelievably noisy, annoying, it creates a lot of pollution, and is just asinine. A leaf blower seems as intuitive as sweeping a pile of floor dust not even from one corner of your house to underneath your carpet, but to another corner of your house! I watch people in the neighborhood who spend hours standing there blowing random leaves from their front lawn onto the sidewalk, or their neighbour's lawn. I can only assume that later on, the other neighbour will return the gift with their noisy leaf blower. If not, mother nature will do its job with this device known as 'wind' to redistribute leaves back all over the lawn. Honestly, who invented this machine? How about getting some exercise and raking the leaves - i.e actually removing the problem! How about using a lawnmower to chop up the leaves on your lawn so that as it decomposes, it fertilizes your lawn? Or someone out there, make a machine capable of efficiently vacuuming up the leaves, wouldn't that make more sense?
What a strange world.
On an unrelated note, I'm happy, life is good. yay.
I'm too muscular to smile
on Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Going to the gym is a bizarre experience. On the one hand, I love that feeling of accomplishment (aka achy muscles) at the end of a workout. It's also nice to feel like you're doing something good for your body (and for looking even better too). However, the people at any gym always seem to have a serious look. Most men tend to walk around their arms spread out like they're carrying invisible purses underneath their armpits. They also have this serious constipated look the majority of the time, especially if they're working out alone. The women don't look too happy either, and seem to love the stair/climb master machines and anything cardio related. They don't tend to smile too much either, but it's probably a good idea because the muscle heads like to gawk at them as they walk by. I'm sure a smile would be misinterpreted by muscle men as a signal to 'hey come over and flirt with me'.
Yesterday at the gym, this cougar lady who keeps smiling at me since I started working out in 2003 spotted me again! It's kinda creepy, but it's not a big deal, I suppose I can take it as a compliment about the way I look.
Update: today at the gym I saw a man perfectly exemplifying what I wrote! Except he was walking around with invisible duffel bags underneath his armpits, not purses. He was walking on the treadmill with the most serious face known to man - almost a zoolander like look of determination, and he would wave his arm stiffly in an ape-like fashion. Honestly, who walks around like that?!
European Odyssey - Journal Day 1 - Paris
on Sunday, July 13, 2008
After a couple of hours of travel on some English highways,we made it to Dover (where the famous white cliffs of England are). I'd like to visit England one day and go to the castle at the top - it looked quite beautiful! The ferry ride took another two hours before we reached France. The ride was fun, but the constant rocking of the ferry can make you feel like a drunk man. I began to think about the physiology of the inner ear that we learned in neurology. I then reminded myself that the next two weeks, I shouldn't think about school at all - I have a lifetime of that! During the ferry ride, I chatted with the other tourists that I would be spending two weeks with - there were a lot of Australians! During the ferry ride, I got to people watch, which is always fun. Old couples are fun to observe - they don't seem to chat much, they sit there, eat and people watch too. Either they've run out of things to say, or it's some sort of comfort to know you don't have to say anything to fill the silence.
Calais, France was beautiful, especially the bus ride on our way to Paris! During the bus ride, I discovered why the lemonade drink my brother and I bought tasted so strong and detergent like, it turns out it's concentrated so that you dilute it in 9x the amount of water!! No wonder our throats burned!
When we arrived in Paris, one of the first things I noticed was the amount of graffiti and garbage thrown everywhere! If this is a city of romance, then I better start throwing trash in my room! During the bus ride, we drove past many of the famous buildings in Paris, such as the Eifel tower, Sacre Coeur, Notre Dame, National Music Hall, Arc de Triomphe, etc.. Those buildings were beautiful and clean, such a huge contrast from the rest of the city! Our night ended with a get together at a local pub beside our hotels. Day 2 here we go!
So the European Odyssey trip begins with a nice one hour delay along the Detroit highways - thankfully we left 3 hours in advance of the flight time. I'm excited about this trip, but not too nervous about this delay. If you believe things will work out in life, then they usually do. I'm sure we won't miss the flight. After we check in, my brother and I waved goodbye to our parents with big excited smiles. They stand their smiling back, looking proud and excited about their grown up boys traveling by themselves. The 8 hour flight was pretty comfortable and the food was pretty good (I'm not sure why people complain about the food!). I even got some decent amount of sleep once I grew accustomed to the sweaty smell of the guy next to me. However, I didn't really grow accustomed to the random chair bumping from the guy behind me - he was either giving birth or fighting invisible ninjas behind my seat.
While waiting in Amsterdam for our connecting flight to London, England, I couldn't but help notice the huge crowds of various ethnicities. It's truly amazing to see so many people from all over the world congregating into one area! When we arrived to the Heathrow airport, my brother and I were bombarded with questions at the passport desk about our purpose of travel, where we received the money to travel, etc. I'm not sure how a pile of questions like that would help with security, because anyone could make things up if they had to. Oh well, good thing we shaved, otherwise imagine the extra questions we would receive.
Once we arrived in London, we made our way using the tube (aka subway) to our hostel. We were kinda tired and sleepy from the travel, so we didn't go out that night. We even ate at the hostel, which wasn't exactly very tasty (nor healthy) - my brother ate this sandwich which included: a hamburger, fried egg, bacon, a mountain of mayo, and a healthy side order of vegetables (aka fries).
We had to wake up at 6am the next morning to get ready to make our way to Paris. I had some pretty good sleep. I was excited, and pumped for this trip! However, my enthusiasm and excitement didn't give me enough energy to drag my 25 kg luggage case very easily. That morning I happened to notice that my new luggage case that I bought two days ago moved a bit slowly, and it felt a bit heavy to pull. Initially, I figured oh it must be the weight of the bag! Until I looked down at the fragments of rubber scraped off on the pavement, and the wheel was as hot as oven (no seriously!). It turns out the axle of one of the wheels became lose, and I was dragging 25kg on non-rotating rubber. It was a good exercise though - it really woke you up at 630 in the morning. Oh well, I'll try to fix it later. Now onto our way to Calais, France!
Who was that again?
on Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Purpose. When it comes to your life, do you have a vision or a goal of your life's purpose? I believe that most people want to feel appreciated and that their existence has relevance to others. Sometimes it doesn't come down to being appreciated, but a matter of not being forgotten. Would your life have mattered if you didn't leave a dent in the world or an impact on others? This yearning to be remembered probably drove many (in)famous men and women in ancient history to become leaders, visionaries, dictators etc. and shape the world around them - for better or worse. Sometimes I wonder if a subconscious fear of being forgotten shapes the decision of some leaders out there. Being remembered is of great importance to many people after all. For example back in ancient Egypt, Pharaohs would leave countless historical symbols and monuments representing their power, accomplishments, victories etc.. In addition to mummification, their etchings into pillars, monuments, statues was a way to last forever. Of course, when another Pharaoh took over, they sometimes would have their predecessor's inscriptions and face etched out of monuments/walls and replaced with theirs. In a snap they are forgotten. Erased from history.
A lot of my actions are derived from that yearning for a sense of purpose in life. I want to have an impact. I want to be remembered. I sometimes imagine myself as an old man, very late in life, and I'm looking back at everything I've done in life. Will I smile at what I've accomplished? Will I regret things? Will I be forgotten? Will these questions even matter by that point in time or will my views change about what's important in life? Part of me believes that at this younger age, ambition, goals and big dreams matter more. However, with time, when you have a spouse, kids, and other things to take care of, that will be your focus and your life. Perhaps then, your kids become your accomplishment, and as you watch them grow and model after you, it is then that perhaps part of you lives on.
Alcohol..and exercise?
on Friday, May 30, 2008
I love to observe people (in a non-creepy way). This morning on the bus, this girl was wearing a sweatshirt that caught my attention. It wasn't a particularly special sweatshirt at all - but the writing on it was very confusing to me. It said "Corona Extra" and then it had a picture of a crown below that, and then it said "Athletics". Confused? Well in any case, I was confused. Here's an alcoholic beverage advertisement..and then below it, it's somehow associating itself with athletics? I'm not sure if there's any logic to it, but if you're going to drink something for any sort of athletic competition, I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be alcohol. Moh well. Well back to studying - 1 more week and no more class :D
Some blogging hiatus
on Wednesday, May 21, 2008
So I'll be busy for the next 2-3 weeks cramming for exams. It's not a very fun time, mainly because the mindset is focused on passing exams as safely as possible, not on the sake of learning, and especially at the expense of sleep, health, eating properly, and life in general. I suppose I wouldn't be cramming though if I focused purely on school, and not my other duties.
Well back to studying in front of the rainy weather..which I must say is pretty to see from afar, especially when you see that gray curtain of water pouring from a cloud in only one location. What's prettier is when the sun comes back, and pierces the clouds with its rays, absolutely magnificent! well back to nerding.
À Bientôt
I'm a man. I'm tougher. yarrr.
on Sunday, May 4, 2008
As I sit here reading my psychiatry notes, I'm reminded about my whole appreciation of women. So back in the "good ol' days" of Plato, (roughly 400 BC), Plato and his followers conceived (excuse the pun) that the uterus was an "animal endowed with spontaneous sensation and motion, lodged in a woman, and ardently desiring to bear children. If it remained sterile long after puberty, it became indignant, dissatisfied, and ill-tempered and caused a general disturbance of the body until it became pregnant, when it became normal again."
After reading that paragraph, I was reminded of what a pain in the uterus society has been on women for thousands of years.
I'm not really big on the feminism business, mainly because it just comes off as anti-men, but it still doesn't take a genius to realize that being a woman is not easy at all. First of all there's the stereotype of emotional instability (how much of it is true or not, who knows, but it's not like guys are perfect either). Then there's the whole monthly 'duties', which I can only imagine to be painful and annoying, there's the worry about pregnancies, there's worry about safety and sexual assaults (I think if I have a daughter one day, I'm going to be paranoid about this issue..bah to bad people!!!), the pressure of body image, the time it takes to do your hair (I had long hair at one point..wow what a pain in the ass to maintain!), and the whole delivering babies business. I can't imagine the emotions, physical changes, energy needed to carry a living being inside you, and then popping it out! It's crazzzy! Honestly, you women are the stronger sex for going through a bunch of the things I mentioned.
I suppose the downside of being a guy though is that society looks at you differently if you try to express your emotions. It's still taboo'sh. Heck a couple of people thought I swung the other way because I'm very huggy and don't care about saying what's on my mind, even if it's on the 'emotion' side. The other disadvantage guys have is regarding the whole child bearing process. I've watched several baby deliveries, and watching the husbands reinforced the whole philosophy of - men feel useless and stupid during deliveries. We just stand there not knowing what to do as the tougher sex delivers. We can't really feel that bond that the mom/child has after going through 9 months of gestation, hours of labour (assuming it's not like the fifth baby..which by then is probably going to fly out of her vagina) and to finally hold the child against her chest. That peaceful, happy, reunited feeling of holding her baby after the ups and downs of pregnancy and delivery is a feeling that no man can ever have.
So let this post be a cheers to the women out there - God made man first, and then God said "Hey, I can do better than that!" and so He made woman. For the atheists...you can still believe that women are still the tougher sex. If you don't believe it, go get a sex change.
Beyond explanation
on Sunday, April 20, 2008
Attraction is a very strange process. When it comes to being attracted to others, there's the generic initial attraction to beauty, but to get the full attraction you need a lot more than that. It's also not a matter of just compatibility. You can take your checklist of wants and needs that you look for in a person, but sometimes, once in a blue moon, someone pushes the right buttons and you start to ignore some of those checklist items. How does it happen? I have no idea to be honest. However, when it happens it's a strangely blissful time.
The other strange thing about attraction is how you can't really force it. Have you ever noticed that when someone really likes you, but they never pushed your attraction buttons properly, then they just end up annoying you more as they try harder? It's the same way if you really like someone and you feel like they don't notice you...then you try extra hard to impress them by being nice...then you end up losing your nether region (if you're a male) in the process. Thankfully I learned that lesson back early in life. The lesson I learned goes beyond finding someone, it applies to a lot of things in life - be confident, never chase or try to please someone (unless you're enjoying that process), and know your worth. Once you have those rules as your pillars, life is a lot more enjoyable!
Judgmental? I think not!
on Sunday, March 30, 2008
We're repeatedly taught from a young age to judge things not by their cover or external appearance, but by what's inside. After all, that's what matters. Whoever said this has clearly not eaten enough pineapples in their life. Pineapples are so beautiful with their shades of green, yellow, rebellious spiky leaves and symmetric rectangular patterns for a jacket. But that's not all folks! Once you cut into that sweet fruit, the kitchen fills with that beautiful aroma that just makes you think of a tropical paradise. Then for the grand finale, when you savor that sweet juicy burst of flavour, WOooohA! Amazing! It's like heaven in my mouth. mmmm.
Well this post was inspired by the pineapple I'm eating right now. Well back to studying neurology.
