An amazing feat. No, I am not talking about my surviving forensic medicine posting in HKL last week (ooh, bodies, blood and putrefaction galore!) and the god-awful but bearable traffic jam (my record being stuck in a bumper-to-bumper jam: close to 1 hour 30 minutes)...but rather, two weeks without Internet connection, because Streamyx is in dire need of improving its customer service. That, or the cables at my home are calling out for a change.
Astoundingly, without the Net - which automatically means no new anime watched, no new manga chapters read, no online reading, no blogging, no FB (...), et al - some things were achieved. Three books were finished: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, The Fire by Katherine Neville (earning itself one of the best ever historical fiction this humble reader has had the pleasure to peruse!), and The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins (a good mystery, considering it was written in the mid 1800s - although it was no Sherlock Holmes material). I'm also awaiting my order - Caleb Carr's The Alienist, which I could expect to arrive in 2, 3 weeks. In the meantime, I'll comfort myself with The Alchemist and Outliers.
I have managed to not shop, partly because almost nothing managed to pique my interest.
Am presently on holiday in Perak, but tomorrow, by God's Will, we'll set off for Cameron Highlands. Strawberries, mmm...
Current Music: Ah, Putrefaction - Sherlock Holmes OST<--in the spirit of forensic medicine!
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Deprivation
Thursday, January 28, 2010
An Ode to THE One
A sentiment that I can only demonstrate through a poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, which sums up everything nicely. Almost everything, that is.
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height<---(...yes, perfect dimensions!)
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight<--(haunting, even when out of sight...)
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of every day's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise,
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints -I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! -and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
...Wait, no, scratch that line about death...for after death, there is no more use...
Apple Inc. continues to make me squeal in delight, which I must assure you, is not an easy feat. I can't numerate the reasons I love Apple so, much less know where to begin.
Hello, Apple iPad, I hope to own you pretty soon if the opportunity ever materialises. Bamboo who?
----------------
Now playing: Kamiya Hiroshi - Kurayami Shinjuu Soushisouai (Uta Nashi)
via FoxyTunes
P/s: Take note that this infatuation may or may not be permanent, as parameters such as memory (my own, not the tablet's), financial status and rationality - which only arrives at a later date, if at all - all influence the exact outcome in the future.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Orthopaedics: Final Impressions
Because the mind - mine, at least - is rarely as idle as the physical body, it is only now I can put my thoughts on this virtual paper, mainly on Orthopaedics as a whole. Partly also because a few others have done the same, and there is no harm in jumping on the bandwagon...
So. MCQ was like a migraine attack, One Best Answer some sort of retribution, PMP was a breath of rather suffocating air, clinical exams was...is there a single English word or expression that incorporates the notion of what-have-I-learnt-all-this-while-oh-God-is-there-no-hope-for-me-at-all?
If anything, the finals had made me doubt whatever beads of knowledge that I have gathered during the course of this posting. Practically everything, from the site of pin insertion for skeletal traction, the antibiotic regime, and if I belong where I am.
But! One of the beauties of medicine is that we more often than not learn more than what is enumerated in the syllabus. It's not just about the disease - one must always treat the patient as a whole.
The ward is a good place to observe human behaviour, be it patients, visitors, doctors and fellow peers. When one is ill, that's when one either puts down all his or her defenses and pretences, and resolves to whatever solution - although the aptness of said solution may be subjected to debate *cough* - that guarantees escape from the predicament...which actually includes utter despair and surrender to whatever Fate has in store. Upon the infliction of pain, some would have no qualms to simply throw one's sense of self-reserve; others might even view this an opportunity throw their weight around.
And yet it is this same problem that can bring out the worst in people. I suppose in that aspect one would be forgiven in thinking that being in the wards would be no different from, say, driving on the road.
Yes, the wards, where one can see a spectrum of human behaviour, from the very good to the unbelievably bad.
