Details about Medcamp

Apparently, second hand info tells me that all the girls in the med cohort of 2013 are drunkards.

Lectures was about healing and cell death, and responses to injury with a British-accented Indian professor. He's really cool. Maybe not as cool as Buckland. But good enough.

I have a break from 1-2pm tomorrow.

I learned a lot today - I'm not sure what else I'm supposed to say I learned... haha.

I haven't actually done enough work for my individual assignment. Bad me.

Library tutorial was more stuff about referencing and citations.

It seems like quite a bit of bother, especially cause Med uses APA referencing exclusively, and other faculties use other methods. It's pretty silly.

I can't say I knew much before my lectures, but now I know more.

Hoping you guys don't have bland days.

Oh, and when I finished uni for the day, I wasn't exactly sure what I was supposed to do, and I couldn't really contact anyone, so I figured I'd just head home. It was an odd feeling, not knowing what to do at uni. Maybe it'll come back to me tomorrow too. Who knows.

Cadavers and 4 hour days.

I get to uni at 9, and so when there's a super long block with pracs and stuff, you get hungry right?

It so happens that in both the anatomy prac today and last week, everyone was hungry during it cause of bad timetabling.

Lol.

Tutoring today for a student doing pride and freaking prejudice. :L

Cannot say I'm a fan.

I don't have much to say except that while uni's fun and interesting and stuff, it's sometimes incredibly dreary.

Hoping you guys are less sleepy when it's cold (Most of my lectures and such are in 18 degree rooms. Which is nice, sure, but it makes me hella sleepy.)

Movies and group work

Or maybe the other way around. It's pretty late.

My parents are awesome separately, but together... eh. They argue a lot...

On the bus to Central, there was a girl behind me who was saying how Med peeps are all elitist and whatever.

It made me feel pretty misrepresented. But then I just mentioned to Doctor Fangirl that "it's cause I'm mingling with the plebs."

Hehe.

Anyway,

ANATOMY PRAC TOMORROWWWW.

I have a feeling that it's not normal to be this excited.

Today was mostly...productive? I made notes on lectures, had more group work stuff....

Making progress, and learning to deal with my group a bit better. I'm still not entirely comfortable. Though they seem to be pretty comfortable. Maybe they're just way more confident.

Tomorrow's skeletomuscular. Yay.

I think this sound bite is most relevant to how I feel.

[I wish I had more time for things. Oh well, such is life. Get over it.]

Apparently a lot of people feel overwhelmed. Do you feel that way?

For some reason I'm managing really well compared to other people. My group co-ordinator said that there's probably something weird/wrong going on.

Maybe I'm wrong. (hehe, get it?)

Ok, that's it.

Hoping you guys are all dandy and fine.

Sophisticated Angst

I think I've found a way to describe my writing to complete strangers.

I hoped it was more Englishy, but apparently not :(

First time on Nico Nico Douga and oh my god is it so much better than Youtube. Way better - less ads.

Even though it's all in Jap. Whateverrrr.

Anyway, that's obviously the kinda angst I'm about.

If you're feeling extra angsty, go look for translated lyrics for "Lynne" or "Rynne" or "Rinne". One of them. Japanese is silly when it comes to L and R.

Just as well that "Migi and Hidari" are "Right" and "Left", respectively.

And as with anything concerning Hachi, the lyrics are obscured to obsoletion.

Lectures today were nothing special as usual :( I met with Icy on the bus though.

"Cadaver-y!" - The 'art' of cadavers.

Bobby asked me what cadavers are. He kept asking me "how were the corpses?" as well.

Told me mother about it and she was like "Eurgh. I dunno if I could do it...but I suppose you just get used to it."

Then I watched some RPA. That was fun. I used to not care, but once you understand what they're talking about during surgeries, it's damn fun. It's a bit like translating another language.

Speaking of which I need to complete my japanese learning pre-July, if it gets to that stage. Who knows.

Elective term is in 5th year, where I can choose to learn in a hospital in basically anywhere in the world. I dunno where to choose :P

But it seems expensive so I'll have to save a lot probably...hmmm.

Or get a savings account. I'll have to look into it.

Practical today was incredibly dull. So sleepy through it.

I'm learning a lot, but I'll probably be learning even more by myself. Which is the point of the med course, ironically...

Great. Now I'm kinda behind with my notes for this group thingy...hrrnnn..

Welp it can't be that bad.

Hoping you guys are having fun too.

Lectures, sessions...

Not much going on, except more reflection about reflection.

And we did have a pretty good set of lectures. Not boring, which is cool.

I gotta start all my assignments though.

Unfortunately not much to say about lectures and group work.

Well...group work. I'm not comfortable enough with my group to be open enough to work with them properly.

Which annoys me, but I know that comfort isn't something that happens easily. I suppose I just don't trust them enough.

Which again, irritates me.

More that I can't just be more open?

I could change it, but I feel it might be too forced.

Hoping you guys don't have forced group work.

[Oh and, library beanbag chairs are nice]

Clinical Skills

"You need to appreciate what's normal before you understand what's abnormal."

That seems to be how we're learning stuff, which is cool I guess.

Lectures were lectures, so I'll leave them out. It's really nice to sit by myself for lectures though :)

(I saw your brother, Dande today, while I was having lunch. He looks the same as ever)

Do you guys remember Sajeev? Mahenderan or something.

He doesn't recognise me lol. I'm not sure I want to bring up primary school.

I think I enjoy some level of privacy and anonymity. I'm weird like that, perhaps.

Clinical skills was kinda dry, a bit like the pre-interview prep and such, and thinking about how consultations work. Ie; GP + Patient.


And I brought up something about how surfers can lose their sense of smell, and everyone in the room was like "what."

Including a GP from SYD's CBD.

So a bit awkward, but I only really regret not knowing specific details. It's always awkward teaching your teacher something. Especially if you're not on very good terms (It was the first lesson)

Also, her name's Marisa. Isn't that cool?

The one on the right is clearly my Clinical Skills Tutor.

Anyway, that doesn't matter. I'm not sure if I would have done anything different. It was a 2.5 hour session of stuff and lecturing and such.

Reflection...sometimes it's hard to see how you could or would change anything.

They seem relatively insignificant, so you don't really do much about it.

A few things I wanted to talk about:

1) ~dandelion* said...

You're shy?

Yes, yes I am. You're surprised? Apparently I'm confident, but I don't feel that's true.

You didn't know the rest of the grade who were there even by year 10? You seem surprised Fiona recognised you.

Some things aren't that important to me? I didn't really care about the grade that much.

To me, everyone seems a lot less intimidating and more approachable if they're in a position of equal standing, lol.

That's kinda true, but equal standing... eh. There are still a bunch of people in my cohort who I would see as being...eurgh. Unapproachable to the extreme. Which is fine - I don't really wanna approach them anyway, unless I have to.

Hm... Yeah, perhaps you should research into Christianity and Catholicism. Also, your logic made no sense, how does them having a singular truth relate to 'educating' other people about it? 

Perhaps I didn't make it...oh you explained yourself as well.

Oh, okay, you go on to explain later. I already feel like going "Oh, you're talking about these kind of things, I don't want to talk about it."

Haha, I know. Sorry. I just get a little irate when people I don't know try to force ideologies onto me, which includes discussion in a really loud voice on a quiet carriage. I think it might be a bad quality. I wonder if I'll get irate when a patient comes in and they insist for one reason or another that I should convert to a religion. Perhaps especially if it's to do with abortion? So many bioethical issues T.T I'm being completely hypothetical and probably silly, but I wonder when it does happen, how will I respond? I might end up regretting whatever choice of action I take.

On the other hand, I am completely grateful for my non-affiliation with any religion.

Okay. So, in Christianity, we believe that God gave us free will, so if you aren't willing to listen, then the Truth will not be revealed to you. Or perhaps the Truth has been revealed to you many times, but you don't realise it since you're not willing to listen.

That I did not know. I'll keep that in mind.

I'm assuming you know that Christians believe that if you don't believe, then you'll go to hell. And they don't want anyone to go to hell. So then they 'educate' others about it. How else would people hear about Christianity if no one tells them?

Well, that's sort of my point in a sense. I should have explained better. Remember Shakespeare?

"A rose by any other name would still smell as sweet" (I hope that's right)

Basically, just because you cannot or have not documented something does not invalidate its existence. Just because we don't have information on particular organism does not mean it doesn't exist.

In that same way, if there's the Truth, then just because we don't read the Bible does not invalidate its existence. The same goes for anything else the Bible documents. And as you said, perhaps we've been exposed to this Truth a bajillion times. If that's the case, why would more and more people need to know about it - why spread the word? To me, it seems more like an exercise in social bonding (nowadays) more than anything. Earlier on perhaps it would have been more about broadening the power base of the Church. Thankfully that doesn't happen as much anymore.

And lol, humans agreeing on anything as a race? Not going to happen.

It will if enough people are educated and appreciate the value of education. The only problem is stubborn resistance (to being assimilated :P), and thus, yes it might not happen in any of our lifetimes. Humanity is so diverse that perhaps what is perceived as 'stupidity' and 'dogma' is just your random coalescence of ideas and external stimuli, which may or may not lead to some kind of evolution?

Maybe I have too much faith in humanity sometimes.

2) delete12 said...

didnt click on either of them, mad?

You have no idea how mad I am. Super mad. Really extra super mad. And stuff.

the square root of -1 is i, but people don't know that unless you educate them

That's kinda my point - knowledge has to spread via education - it isn't self-propagating.

you only get one bit of time of childhood innocence/silliness, and maybe it would be fun to go back relive that.

I think you get as much of that as you can make for yourself. Maybe I'm just being silly and you're right, and I just hate endings so that interferes with how I see the world. [Lol Agings and Endings]

and it would be so fun to listen to all of these different songs if i could forget what they sounded like, because the peak of how much i like a song is usually when i don't know it perfectly. once i can trace it, like, mentally sing along with it, except not just singing, every instrument, then it's not the same.

I kinda wish I was more musical, but at the same time, I don't really. For the record, Rocksmith is never going to be my cup of tea. I sing along to my songs a lot. And whistle. And don't care when people stare.

Little jealous that you all have societies and stuff. I'm part of the "Go-home-after-uni Society".

I will say that I'm not sure I want to be in a club.

Hoping you are enjoying that which is uni. Need to work on my assignment now...

End of week 1!

There was only a prac today, and it was pretty boring. Risk assessments and such.

I still haven't eaten lunch or anything ^^;

I'm so good at this stuff. But really it's cause I couldn't really find the time to get something to eat.

I'll probably get the crispy chicken with rice next week. It looks and probably is pretty good.

Man I'm a little hungry now. I wonder what I should eat.

Even with my short fingernails (read: super short it's apparently hideous), I still manage to get stuff stuck in..under...around them.

I suppose it just shows that you should pay more attention to those areas when you wash your hands.

I love the hospital grade antiseptic soaps. They smell and feel so much nicer than like Dettol (gives me headaches).

Next week I'll have to write a paragraph about this week, so I'll probably refer to this blog. But nothing much actually happened ^^;

I have two assignments to do, and I'm not doing them right now lalalala.

Researching and reporting on Peter Doherty, who's an immunologist and I think he documented how T-cells recognise which things are malignant to the body and also is responsible for transplant rejections.

Basically something about binding to MHC.... which is some chemical/receptor... and I don't know very much. But that's what the assignment's gonna teach me.

I'm gonna strive to make it epic and super academic but I know I'll probably fail somewhere along the way.

Hrmm. Group assignment. Group wants to do either Obesity or CardioVascular Disease (CVD).

I think if we pick Obesity, we'll have to have images of fat people to prove our point.

Ah what am I saying. I'm going to cook something now.

Was in Epping today and considered going to the Battlegames store there, but then I realised that I don't have the time to play MTG, even if I bought cards. Maybe later (kinda pains me).

Hoping you guys are having more interesting lectures.

Cadavers!

I was actually expecting younger cadavers, with full bodies, but I suppose they're in really short supply. Probably cause they tend to be either buried or have their organs cut out for transplants and such.

I'm finding the lectures interesting in a sort of... means justifies the ends way. I think it's kinda bad.

I don't really have a passion for it when I'm just semi-actively learning it. It's only later in discussions I care I suppose.

Biochemistry and Histology. Proteins and tissues. I'm doing so much bio... I suppose it makes up for not doing it in HSC.

There's two assignments and one written exam every course, including what they call a "reflective essay".

I'm managing to integrate it into my blog, thankfully though. And I suppose you guys might be slightly interested in what happens in the upper campus.

Tomorrow's just a practical and it's in... Biology?

I think that's lower campus. Can someone guide me around there? :o

The reflective essay is about the first week of med...hmm. It should be fairly interesting, huh.... I'll get round to writing a quick draft on the weekend I think.

There's an assignment which is researching Peter Doherty. Apparently there's some really advanced science involved. I wonder what it'll be like. He's an immunologist who's still alive today, haha.

ISS Staffie applications due tomorrow at midnight D:

Does anyone else want to read it before I send it in?

Cadavers. I guess they were anatomically perfect within bounds of normality but...

So old D:

And the risk of contamination is incredibly high in those labs. I'm going to assume from now on that everything is contaminated in a mixture of decaying biological matter, formaldehyde, phenoxyethanol and methanol. (Had to check up the second one)

And we're learning so much anatomy :o Bones...muscles...joints...systems.

What the. One of my folders...oh. It's not missing, it's on the table behind me.

I bought a lab coat, but if anyone wants to wear it for kicks, it's at your risk. It could be contaminated. I'm going to pretend it is except when it's freshly washed.

Latex gloves are really fun.

I think the only thing I regret from this prac was that I didn't take down more notes, but that can be rectified later. It'll be a little more effort, I suppose.

Otherwise reasonably fine.

I'm not sure why or how Tuna insists that even in Med I'll have time to game and socialise and get drunk and all that stuff.

Though, he's taking time off gaming as I speak...sooooo.

Anyway, he's in RMIT doing a Music-related degree that I kinda forgot.

For anyone who is mildly affected, I've rescheduled so Fridays don't have students.

Hoping you guys are having lotsa fun times.

More lectures

Unfortunately, I can't say that I would have changed how I did anything today.

Met a few more people from my scenario group, which was fun.

Had pho for $8, which is apparently relatively cheap, all things considered, which is nice too.

Lectures were a little intense and a little boring. Cell biology (Histology...ish) and Anatomy. Just took notes... maybe next time I'll have more to eat for breakfast. Like tomorrow, cause I've got a 9am start, again.

Then there was a anatomical pathology practical... and I need a lab coat for next week.

Basically, virtual microscopy. Which is kinda weird, but makes sense cause unless we/I go into research or pathology, we're not going to use microscopes much. Basically, it's a simplification of microscopy onto a database, which houses all these images and think google maps, basically.

I didn't pay much attention, but I got the basics down.

We saw Cirrhosis of the liver and Pancreatic cancer with a Dr. Kumar who has an excellent British accent.

Anyway, I think that's all I need to talk about.

Hoping you guys are also doing weirdly fun things.

Oh. Cadavers soon!

Self reflecting on self reflexivity about self reflection

So apparently I need to reflect on what happens in the med course and then present it later as part of my portfolio, lol

I figured I might as well tie it into blogging, which makes it easier, I guess.

Anyway... lectures were pretty boring, haha.

They were just introductory and kinda hard not to fall asleep.

I should bring something quiet and reasonably undistracting to do. Maybe fixing up my timetable or something.

Looking in my diary for notes about today.

Found some music while I type this up. Not particularly distracting.

I didn't bring my program guide cause I thought it was unnecessary, haha.

Concept mapping tutorial was pretty bland. I got to meet people in my scenario group, which was pretty fun.

I learned that gym membership is free for the first month, but then it's like..$600+ for a year. Which comes to about $2 a day, and thus, per fortnight is $24. Which is kinda horrid.

I guess I'll tell my father about it - he told me that it would be cheap, lol.

He's an alumni.

Anyway, the concept mapping... I think what I would do next time is try to talk more with my group. I think I'm pretty shy - I have to try to make conversation with new people and it's a little uncomfortable. I suppose after 6 years I'll be a Legendary Conversationalist.

Oh, and the lectures told me that I'd be a specialist in 2031. Like, finishing. Soo... another lifetime (literally) for me.

Aha.

Apparently the perks later will be worth it, but the thing that concerns me the most is how financially nonindependent I'll be in these few years.

I found someone with a better rate than me for tutoring. He's doing tutoring for years 7 to 10, and it's taking about $10 more per one on one session, and says that if it's a class of 4 or so, he gets $110. Which is pretty good. I have a feeling that I'll have to hold classes, but right now I don't have a good set besides their house and libraries venue, and different people have different needs.

By the way, libraries close really early on weekends. It sucks.

Scenario groups.

I was a little late cause of lunch with Dandelion (forever now known as Dande cause I think it's cool) and Icy Foliage but I just said I got lost. Which I did, a little.

I think it was more to get to know the group more than anything. Something that came into my head was that I shouldn't try to answer every question asked. Lol. Maybe I talk too much when I'm comfortable and not enough when I'm not.

Oh well, 6 years, Legendary Conversationalist.

Computer lab on data retrieval and information gathering.

Somewhat dreary. But I did talk a bit with Fiona Li and Jeffery Liu are in my group. For people who aren't in the know, Fiona left in year 10 for Ruse and miraculously, somehow still knows who I am. I..have no idea how. I didn't realise I made any sort of impression on her.

As for Jeffery, he graduated in 2011, and did optom in UNSW for a year before 'restarting' as he calls it and is now in a bonded place for UNSW med. Which is pretty cool. He got an offer for UWS and UNewcastle too, but who wants to go there? They were both bonded, I believe.

I think everyone looks intimidating and unapproachable to me if they're in a position of equal standing. If I'm in a a Privileged Position, then I'm a lot more comfortable. I think it's just my conceited nature. It's a little... unnerving. I think I think that I'm superior to a lot of people in some way or another, until I talk to them and vice versa. Then that delusion melts away, thankfully.

Can't touch this!

Speaking of which, Ravnica was my favourite block of all time, and now it's back and ooh the new set's really pretty and I should get back into MTG again. Which I will, once I figure out how I'm going to get to Friday Night Magic at my local cardgame store. BUT I WILL DO IT.

[/fanboy]

...lost my train of thought.

Oh yes, I'm talking to Icy about it - religion and basically how religion fits into politics.

My answer? It doesn't.

I overheard two guys talking about 'spreading the word' of the Bible and such. A really snide thought crossed my mind:

"What if they're a gay couple?"

But then I remembered that not all Christians are against that kinda thing.

But what really made me think (unfortunately this is not related very much to medicine until I get into Sexual Health Medicine) is that they are trying so hard to come up with ways to preach their religion...without it seeming like preaching. Which was kinda ironic, and made me feel superior again (I'm such a bad person).

I was just about to turn around and talk to them about it when I decided that I shouldn't cause that would be rude.

Anyway, the main thought was "Why does religion need to be spread by its followers?"

I was discussing a similar topic with my role model and practically life mentor, who I call Tuna, or Uncle Tuna and it was basically about Michel Foucault and after reading Tuna's paper on Foucault, I told him that what Foucault was on about is that knowledge must be self-propagating. The current generation must teach the following generation in order for knowledge to grow and sustain itself.

And that is very much true of science. Science stops if it there is no-one to teach it.

[By the way, a bit of background on my dear mentor, he's gay (ie; homosexual, but he's also pretty happy about it too) and pretty damn left-wing. He dislikes the entity of science for a few reasons, most notably of its underlying aims to first and foremost spread itself and maintain its presence. Also that science can't prove anything, and yet there is an entire society of misconception or at least corruption of the word "proof", in the context of everyday usage of the phrase "scientific proof". In the context of science and research it's ok, because it's assumed that "proof" is something that can be counterpointed later in the future with different evidence/research that's peer reviewed. The public seem to think that it's a football game and that science is lying to people. So... in essence it's a gripe with how language is used, but language is pretty important.

Tl;dr, I have an awesome role model, and science is hard to explain to laypeople.]

And yes, I did talk about him when UNSW asked me about my role models.

Back to the beaten track... my main point was how come if religion - and again, I'm talking specifically about Christianity/Catholicism - proclaims to have a singular Truth (with a capital T) then why does it require its followers to 'educate' other people about it.?

I'm probably striking a logical fallacy somewhere in that, or someone is going to tell me that I'm twisting words, but unless someone does, I'll stand by my ideas.

And as an aside, if you look at the John Howard government, one particular gripe is that they banned the teaching of Postmodernism in schools. At least, formally teaching it. Almost all contemporary literature has postmodern elements and someone who does not have any education about education and particularly about education of literature (see entry for John Howard) would not be able to pick it up.

(Apart from being a bad person, I'm probably hot blooded. Which...may explain why I like cold environments? :] )

And postmodernism goes against Christian teachings, which are pretty ingrained in politics at the current moment, and probably will be as long as Western society remains exactly that. Western.

Which is to say that they Church and Pope have way too much power. And way too much of a Privileged Position.

Again, being ignorant, I make little effort to distinguish the Vatican from everything else, from Christians, from Catholics. They're all in the gray limbo I call "religion" along with other gods, pantheons and everything else.

Shinto and such that I respect a slight bit more go into "supernatural beliefs that are also amusing and have beautiful lore".

That includes horoscopes and astrology, if you're wondering.

Back to the very first thesis - I don't believe that religion should need to be 'spread' by mere mortals if it is the Truth. I mean... if you believe in a singular Truth, then that Truth will eventually be uncovered, no matter what angle you're looking at.

The fact that we have no agreed as a race on a singular Truth means it's either elusive or doesn't exist. I like to think it doesn't exist and that we all hold truths about the world and each other, and that each truth is as "true" and "real" as the next.

Getting more juice.

[Btw, there's a Secular Society on UNSW that I'm not willing to join because I don't have the time and it seems kinda unappealing to me who doesn't have the time for hardcore culturo-political philosophy. Heh. SecSoc.]

Anyway guys, I've got more sugar. Are you proud?

[And Dande, if your brain's dying, just give it a rest and comment later :P]

I believe that's it.

Dare you to click on it :)

If anyone's wondering.... here's what it's based on, and that you'll recognise.

Anyway, it's beautiful :)

Hoping you guys are having lots of fun in uni and are less busy that me :(