Poor Focus

Many things have happened in the past week, none of them important. I'll tell you about a few of them anyways.

First, I did some catsitting over the weekend. This involved me spending time with a cat, feeding and playing with him, and observing him. That was quite interesting. Speaking of entertainment, the person I was catsitting for has cable, which drove home the fact that I haven't had a television since coming to Calgary. I recognized very little of what was on.

I also watched a few movies. One of them was 'Vital', a bizarre film about a guy who suffers complete amnesia after an auto accident; after being taken home by his parents, he realizes that he remembers everything in the anatomy textbook in his cupboard, so off he goes to pursue medical school. Dissection, frenzied drawing of anatomy, and a love triangle ensue. In the end, not the most rewarding movie.

Let's see, what else to report? I played my first game of floor hockey in probably 13 years tonight; I joined a local team, succumbing to the peer pressure of Bejeweled! and The Chauffeur. I wasn't great, but I think I held my own; afterwards, a girl asked me whether I was a marathoner or a sprinter, she couldn't tell; perhaps I was into triple jump? She just knew I must do track. Boy, can people be wrong in their analyses.

To top off the evening, I got an extra-large double-double on the way home, and watched 'Der Untergang'. Wow, what a movie; I kept thinking about what my own ancestors were going through at that moment in time. Bruno Ganz is great. Oddly enough, I don't think I've actually seen a movie with him since 'Der Himmel über Berlin', a.k.a. 'Wings of Desire', which is a favourite of mine.

Ah, time for bed. :)

Worms 3D

So, I got some exciting news today. It turns out that two of the nine of us that were in Tanzania this summer have been diagnosed as having intestinal worms. What species, I don't know. Probably a hookworm, but perhaps some kind of roundworm?

I had a friend a few years back who loved the video game 'Worms'. Now, I am wondering whether just such a war is currently being fought in my own intestinal tract.

More Pics

It was another long day today. I was pretty beat by the time we things wrapped up at school. We had a thing in the evening concerning our clerkship: we have to rank our preferred schedules next week, which essentially means committing yourself to a specialty, since you have to choose a schedule that will put your favourite career choice right there, front and centre. Really, this is the number one reason why three-year medical schools should be eliminated. Why are people always in such a rush?

Anyways, I added a couple of photos from my pre-med-school wanderings in Turkey to my picasaweb gallery, just to kill some time.

Eau de Formaldehyde

It was a long day today. I got up early to wash my white shirts, so that I could wear one to school (still moist, when I headed out to school in 0 ˚C temps). Then, it was two hours of lecture, two hours of small group, four hours of neurosurgery clinic, and another two hours of dissection. All that, with just two coffees and three cookies to serve as fuel.

That last part of the day, dissection, I'm very happy about. As I mentioned in a comment a few days ago, I managed to get our main anatomy prof (and probably my favourite prof here), to oversee me in a dissection project. As a result, I'm happily spending time downstairs, dissecting away, in the pleasant company of my classmate Narco. Today, Rococo came on down too, just to check out the lab, as I freed up a greater auricular nerve from its overlying platysma.

Anyways, today I also started on the paperwork to write the USMLE step 1 next spring. I am not exactly sure why I'm writing it, and it will cost me a pretty penny, but I guess I don't want my options to be limited in the future. It should be like studying for the MCATs again, only this time sans study partner. I wonder if I have it in me; we'll see. Of course, studying for the USMLE should make studying for my later MCCQE part I exam a simpler exercise.

Snow Snow Come Again

SIt's snowing outside right now. After brainstorming ideas for a project with Magic Pants, Rococo, and Bejeweled! for a few hours, it was time to call it a week, and MP, Rococo, and I headed over to 'Chili's' for dinner. Once we were seated inside the restaurant, it began to snow outside, and so I rushed out to commune for a few minutes with the first flakes of the year.

Oh, I finally got internet access at home this week. Hurrah! My life should be a bit easier from here on out. I also almost bought a 1-V, but it didn't work out; oh well.

Hoo, I love snow. :) Maybe I should head out for a walk... :)

Felicitations

The neuroanatomy peripatetic exam yesterday went too easily. In a bit of cosmic payback for that, Telus has held out on providing me with DSL service. I decided back in mid-August, that I'd had it with wardriving (and warwalking), and so it was time to graduate to having net access at home. Well, installation has turned out to be maddening, with delay after delay by the phone company. They said yesterday, that they would absolutely, positively, hook me up today by 5 p.m., but 5 p.m. has come and gone. :(

Anyways, today I completed my watching of 'Felicity', with the last two episodes of season 4. Ah, it's a sad life. What series to watch next?

Image is Everything

I came in to school this evening to go over some CTs and MRIs before Friday's neuroanatomy bellringer. Well, I found the lab quite crowded, so I decided on a bit of websurfing first. I'm looking into a new camera, so I dug around a bit on what was out there. See, I bought my current camera, a Canon EOS A2E back in 1993 or so, and although it's a decent camera, I'm not happy with its auto-exposures. This summer, I had to resort to manual exposure for about half my pics, which slows things down considerably, and results in a lot of lost shots. I see so many nicely exposed pics on el cheapo digital cameras these days, that I think I should be able to find a film camera that does a better job than my current one. Anyways, first I noticed that my current camera body sells for about CAN$100 on ebay, which isn't great.

When I looked at current models, I found something interesting. The Canon EOS 1V, which is six years old at this point, records all the exposure and time info for all pics you take, and you can download that info to your computer. This would solve my other big current photo problem: all my photos are time-stamped with the time I scanned them, not the time I shot them, which sucks, database-wise. So, if I bought a 1V, all I'd have to do is write a little program to take that info and write it into my image headers, and I'd be a happy camper once again. Throw in some GPS tagging, and nothing could stop me! Anyways, all that is just a moderately expensive dream at this point.

Oh, and after actually looking at those MRIs, I finally set up a little photo gallery for public perusal, but unfortunately, it seems that google locks out everybody that doesn't have a picasaweb account, so it's kind of useless. I guess I should try flickr next...

September, I'll Remember

September has arrived. Last night was cold, and tonight will be cold too. Luckily, we will make it back into the mid-twenties for the Labour Day weekend. Still, the leaves have already started to change colour, and I've gotten out my winter coat (heck, I'm wearing it as I type this, and yeah, it's still Bil's old jacket with my green hoodie underneath).

Oh, the psych exam last week went fine, although I could have studied harder. I think I'm done with my self-analysis for a while. For the week before the exam, I was like some modern-day Freud, lying back on my Lillberg couch from Ikea, conducting psychodynamic psychotherapy on myself.

I meant to get some summer photos up, especially now with autumn upon us. Maybe next weekend...