Candy Pop

Pretty fun second week of uni. I would have posted on Monday, but the fun made me tired. Well not really, there was a two hour practical that knocked the stuffing out of me.

The practical was about using the cathode ray oscilloscope (think back to Physics). My group got the older type, so getting it to work properly was a bit finicky. We connected it to the usual suspects, a signal generator and batteries. It would have been done in an hour or so, but like I said, the CRO often refused to work. It would work for 5 seconds and then mysteriously stop working. So the whole thing took longer than expected. The fact the some of the activities in the practical manual were obscured by pictures didn't help either.

During the sometimes lengthy breaks, I join in some card games, the newest of which is proving to be rather addictive. It has no official name and explaining it is a bit difficult but here goes. This game can be played with any number of people (around 4-7 is recommended). Each player get four cards, and attempt to get 4 of a kind, 4 Kings, 4 Aces etc. The cards are passed around in a circle, with the players discarding card so that there are only 4 cards. So one person starts by picking up a card from the deck, discarding a card, whereupon the next player picks up that card, selects a card to discard and son on. Once a player has the required hand, he/she grabs an object from a pile in the middle of the table (plastic spoons or pepper packets work well). However, there is one less object than the number of players, so 4 spoons for 5 players, 5 pepper packets for 6 players and so on. Once one person has grabbed the packets, so must everyone else with the person unable to grab an object as the loser. Once a player has lost a certain amount of times, he/she has to perform a dare.

The difficult part is passing the cards around with the point of trying to form 4 of a kind and keeping an eye on the objects in the middle. It lead to some pretty intense games and moments. Some of the dares performed or suggested were:

• Offering a random person a serviette and they had to accept
• Running up to groups of people yelling "Lord Voldermort is coming!"
• Doing a pole dance while singing "Singing in the Rain"
• Eating a ridiculous amount of wasabi
• Asking random people for their photograph

Fun times indeed. Anyway, one of our psych lectures, Biological Psychology, was pretty fun because it was examining some of the biological and genetic pressures on psychology such as looking for mates. The lecturer was making plenty of jokes, and we spent the first half laughing pretty hard.

Tomorrow there's the dreaded three hour specific lecture on radiography. It didn't get to 3 hours last time, so hopefully, I'll get out early.

I've started to go to sleep much earlier than usual. It'll be like 9:30pm and I'll be like "Meh...I'll go to sleep now" only to wake up at like 5am in the cold cold morning. Well I'm warm under the covers, it's just that my room is cold. Usually I don't turn on the heater because it gets stuffy for me. If there is anything I hate worse than cold mornings, is the feeling of stuffiness in a room. Some of the lecture rooms can get quite stuffy, and for me it's a relief to breathe fresh air, even if it is cold outside.

I'll stay up later than usual. I usually get kicked awake by my body's biological clock at 6am anyway.

Cidade Sol

Friday. The end of the working week Friday. My uni day off Friday. Nothing much to report except the presence of another 5 hour break. If my calculations are correct, every fortnight I have a 5 hour break on Wednesdays. Screw that, I'll probably go City Hunter or something.

Having eased into the first week of Uni, I'm more or less content with all my lectures. Health physics is pretty cool, psych and sociology are proving to be much more interesting than previously thought, further anatomy is alright and the specific radiography lectures are long but useful. Of course, I also had my first taste of Bangers in such a long time. They make some good food, and plus with my Rewards card, it gets cheaper.

Waiting for more games to come out. Overlord is a nice little distraction, Trauma Center is getting ridiculously difficult, and there's still DoTA. I'm waiting for some nice little DS games. Phoenix Wright 3: Trials and Tribulations for the DS is number one on my list. The Metal Gear Solid 4 gameplay video looks amazing, although the high cost of the PS3 is going to prevent me from playing it out.

Otherwise, nothing much is happening. Except...oh crap...looks like rain. I going to have to move the clothes into the garage.

Housework to do, so I'm off.

Que Pena

So it's back to the university grind on the first day back. It was a decent day, but the 5 hour break between my two lectures did not help. I actually kinda felt tired.

First day back and we shared clinical war stories, the highs, lows and downright weird. But we all agreed that we learned a lot and became more confident in performing x-ray procedures. It only filled so much of our 5 hour gap. Well, starting next week, we won't have that gap as it will be filled with pracs and tutorials, but one the first day back, it was rather pissy. Anyway, as we chatted, one of our friends came up and told us that our notes were ready. It cost $77 all up. A bit on the expensive side, but hey, we want to pass, not fail. So we waited in line and coughed up the money. The notes look pretty interesting, especially for BACH11612 - Introductory Behavioural Health. The notes for that are pretty heavy, I think they photocopied an entire book or something on the subject, but it makes for interesting reading.

On the subject of reading, I braved the natural afternoon light to buy HP7. It was in my hands at around 11:30am and I finished it some 5 hours later. I won't say that it's an excellent book, but it brings the Harry Potter saga to an adequate end. The important trio of characters didn't die permanently, and there was a happy ending. There were a lot of deaths though or other minor characters. Like I said, it ends the saga well enough and it was worth the $30 I spent. Still I did feel a bit cheated. It was nowhere as thick as I expected and that was probably why I finished it much faster than previous books.

I've finally found a neat little DS game. It's called Trauma Center, and you play as a young surgeon with amazing skills despite a lack of experience. It's quite a tough puzzle game. Not only do you have to beat the time limit, you also have to keep your patient in good condition otherwise they die and you lose. Very challenging. I'm somewhat surprised that it mixed in patient care and ethics. Not a lot, but enough to remind you that as a health professional you have to save your patients and treat them well. First Ace Attorney, now Trauma Center? What next?

I also took the plunge and replaced why PSU. Which turned out to be a good decision and now my computer is running better than ever. No more whirring fan noises and overheating, just smooth quiet running.

More operations to do. I'm off.

Harry Potter and the Franchise that Prints Money

There's no doubt that the Harry Potter series has made J.K Rowling a very rich woman. Was it multi-millionaire or billionaire? Well, her total wealth is pretty damn large. Now we have the seventh and final Harry Potter book.

So, HP7 kicks off this Saturday and I happen to have some spare money. I'm thinking of going to buy the book on launch day, but seriously, I'm not sure whether I sound brave the morning queues. Shops usually open at 9am. I wonder if they will have some book left over at 11am? I'm not going to fight through crowds of people just to get one book. So that's the plan anyway for me. 11am at Parramatta Westfield, homing in on Dymocks, but there is also Borders on the 4th level. The plan's success depends really on whether I can be bothered getting out there. Apparently, it's forecasted to have showers, which dampens my mood to go out. So now I'm plagued with indecision. Damn.

Apparently, it's been leaked to the internet. Honestly, I don't mind spoilers. But I'd rather read the whole thing and let the story unfold, rather than having the plot condensed to a few key dot points. So I'm leaning towards going out and buying it. I have to buy a new PSU eventually, so two birds with one stone.

If you happen to be looking for some free (and legal) music, then ccMixter is a pretty good place. It's mainly ambient and chill music with electronic vibes, but that's just the surface. Pretty much all genres are represented, just some more than others. But it's free (and legal)!

Also there's this Jap flash game, based on slapping. You play some chick and you have to slap your opponents into submission for some reason. It uses the mouse, so you click attack and move your cursor across the opponents face and if you're fast enough, she gets slapped. To avoid slaps, you click evade and swing the mouse under you character's head. So yeah. Check it out here.

And rounding out today, here's a little something something from Youtube. I'd buy that.

The Waiting Game

Nothing to do really as I await the return of the uni grind. Mainly reading and playing my DS. And restocking and reorganising my modest comic collection. Yeah, so I read comics. They aren't updated as often as I like plus one of them is like a year behind on the third issue. No idea what's happening there.

It's strange how some memories just pop out. You're doing something and all of a sudden, a nostalgic memory blossoms. You smile, then go "WTF? Where did that come from?" I was thinking back to the ye olde days of primary school. As I was wondering about my former classmates and what they were possibly up to, my mind brought up the time of the school fete. Basically, the year 6 students would set up stalls and the rest of the school would spend money. Was it for charity or the school? I don't remember. Anyway, my group set up this skill game stall. Arranged on a table was a variety of jars with an amount of money written on it. The aim was to throw a small ball so that it landed in the jar. If it did you won the amount of money inside (ranging from 5 cents to $5). It like $1 for three throws and $2 for eight throws or something. The kicker was that the ball was those very bouncy rubber balls and the place where you stood to throw was a ridiculous distance away. Naturally, more money was made then lost. One guy was lucky. He managed to win $5 eight times in a row, but it spent $10 or so to get it. There were a lot of 5 cent winners, so the profit we made was insane. I remember we managed to con this girl in our class, Jenny Jiang(?), into having multiple goes and she basically wasted 90% of her money.

That came out of the blue as I was doing housework. Random, but it was a good, fun memory. Yep, when I'm not reading or gaming, I do the housework. Vacuuming, washing the dishes, washing the clothes, hanging the aforementioned clothes and bringing them in. I wouldn't say it's boring or that I hate it. I've seem to have developed an immunity to it. I just do everything on automatic. Still, it can take a stupid amount of time before everything is done.

On the subject of primary schools, I've noticed that my old primary school even has a Facebook group. Pity that I don't anyone in the group. Must have been beyond my time or after it.

My power supply for my computer has been acting up. Makes horrible whirr-ing noises and sometimes the fan doesn't spin, causing the PSU to overheat and the machine to restart. Maybe I should buy a new PSU...

Doctor Who and House have finished. I need something to fill the void. Maybe a short anime series?

And Phuong...why has your blog gone private? Isn't supposed to be public?

In My Skin

Well, clinical placement at Westmead is now over and I have around a week of relaxation before I got back to the university grind. At first, I didn't think it would be useful. BUt I was dead wrong.

Clinical gave me more confidence. Performing even basic x-rays was at first intimidating, but I got used to it. It might seem obvious but there is a big difference between a mannequin and a real person. I thought it would be easy to give someone one a basic x-ray like a chest. But there all these other factors that come into play. My lecturer was talking about how some people see us as button pushers, but there is also a human element. We meet with people every moment on the job. And that makes us more than button pushers. We are often the first to see the bad news. Cancer in a person shows up quite clearly on an x-ray for example.

Anyway on the last day, it was quite boring. Definitely not as exciting as the others, but just as interesting. I followed a radiographer on mobile duty. Basically, some people are just too sick or fragile to make it down to our department, so we go to them. There's a mobile x-ray machine that's powered on batteries and that's what we use as our source of x-rays. The rest of the day had x-rays that I couldn't do, but I helped as much as possible. Mainly the paperwork, of slotting the x-rays into the folders, putting on the appropriate stickers and giving them to the doctors to diagnose.

I was going to do one chest x-ray before leaving, but the patient was a Muslim woman, and she refused point-blank to have a man x-ray her. All the current radiographers were male and the female radiographers were all away busy, so we had to pull the Chief Radiographer out to do it. It just made more difficult for us. But that's her belief and we have to respect that. Seriously though, it's just a chest x-ray. Women are usually given a gown, so no one is getting you to stand naked or anything. Oh well. Not my problem.

Worth it? Hell yes. Now I can't wait for the next clinical placement. It will probably be more difficult, more pissy and with more responsibility involved, but I'm certain to learn something that can't be taught in the classroom.

Oh and Harry Potter 7? I am awaiting that, but I'm not in a rush. I'll probably grab the book later and don't worry about spoilers. I don't mind them.

My #1 HP7 prediction? Hermione dies. That's where my money's at.

Work Area One

New day, new place within Westmead. Work Area 1 does mainly Fracture Clinic (people with broken bones, duh) and a combination of inpatients and outpatients. Unlike Accident and Emergency, also known as Casualty, there isn't that much sense of urgency. The pace is slower, more managable and can be downright boring at times.

Yesterday was my last day at A&E, and it was probably the best day yet. I mostly helped with this PDY (a radiographer who has just left school and must do an "internship" so to speak) who was really helpful. Again I mainly observed but helped out where I could. Some people think that being a radiographer is a pretty cushy job and I guess it can be depending on where you work. But in A&E, it can be pretty taxing. On one occassion, we needed to do a chest and knee x-ray on this 80-year old woman wiht Alzheimer's. It was difficult because we couldn't use the DR system (she was too fragile to move around) and had to slide a cassette behind her back to do the chest x-ray. However, due to the Alzheimer's, she was very distracted and was never in the right position. In the end, we winged it a bit. The PDY set her into the correct position while I held down the prep button. As soon as he ran out, I pressed the button down fully to take the shot. It wasn't perfect, but it was close enough.

The A&E office happened to be right next to two rooms, 28 and 29. That's where the dead or dying go and the family can grieve. Well, that's where they usually go. Sometimes when we are short on beds, some patients go in there. But I'm walking back from an x-ray only to have this Asian family sobbing their hearts out just outside the office. It was pretty gut-wrenching.

Work Area 1 was different. For the first few hours, there wasn't much to do, expect the odd x-ray. But it was cool because I managed to go down to the mortuary on two occasions. One was a suicide victim, and the second was a jumper. The first guy had shot himself in the head, but the body had been cleaned up slightly, so there was only a bit of blood behind his ears. The second guy had jumped off somewhere high. The police were present during his death, so whether they were trying to talk him down, or whether he was on the run was unclear. X-raying cadavers is a lot different. And a bit difficult. By the time we got to them, rigor mortis had set in and it was difficult to move the body. But very interesting. Very, very interesting.

I managed to do another bunch of chest x-rays, and the PDY person assisting me was very frank, but that helped in my learning. He didn't bullshit, so to say. But I picked up a few tips that helped immensely.

I think Jimmy commented last time that this was I was learning something practical and directly related to my course. That's pretty much true. This sort of training is invaluable, especially in a public hospital where you get plenty of cases. Private clinics are alright, but you don't have that many cases.

Tomorrow is the last day!

A & E

Clinical placement has been pretty cool. It's quite different to learning in class. I made a mistake of going to Westmead Children's Hospital rather than Westmead, but luckily I turned up early so by the time I realised my mistake, I was still on time.

Let me say this first though. The digital radiography system is fucking sexy. Two systems operate at Westmead, the CR (Computed Radiography) and DR. The CR system works like this. You slide in a cassette, set your exposure factors, ping then take out the cassette and slot into a reader, so you can see whether you've done a correct diagnostic image. And if you get it wrong, you have to do it all over again. This is not counting the multiple cassettes. The DR system has an image receptor, so the X-rays are stored digitally and displayed instantly on the screen, you if you do get something wrong, you can quickly do another shot. Everything is automated so you don't have to punch in the factors. Sexy, very sexy.

The people at the hospital are nice, but are always in a rush. My current supervisor is definitely a pro, I mean, she knows her shit, so to speak. She is a bit pedantic on technique, but it's the right technique. I managed to do a handful of chest x-rays today. Besides assisting in procedures or observing them, I also do some reading and take care to the request forms. When a request is entered, the printer in the room churns out the form (what to x-ray, patient details etc) and some stickers. I take the form, label the location of the patient, stick the stickers on and place in queue, with the newest ones at the back. We seem to always have a backlog of requests to do. I only ever see about two radiographers, including my supervisor on duty, at most three. Today, there was more reading and organising request forms than taking x-rays, because my supervisor was running around doing mobile chest x-rays (when the patient is too sick to come to us, we go to them), and the other person on duty was a PDY that didn't really like me observing. But I learnt stuff and that's what important.

I'd probably do more x-rays tomorrow, since I start at 8am and the mornings are usually slow, so I can take my time, and my supervisor can point out some details better.

The weather has been horrible. It's stopped raining, so far, but the wind is blowing pretty strong and it's cold as well. I timed my purchase of a trenchcoat perfectly. It's so warm.

Sophia's planning her 18th birthday and the theme is Heroes and Villains. I have know idea what to go as, but preliminary ideas are mad scientist (I already have a labcoat) or 1940s gangster ( i just need a hat, and maybe a mustache and maybe a gun?). Meh. I still have time to plan.

Off I go, to revise radiographic postionings.

Sharada

Yesterday was spent away from the computer and book. I met up with some old friends to go out and have some fun.

Went to Burwood to watch Transformers. I was a little unsure about the movie. I've heard both good and bad things from it, and with Transformers being a rather dear childhood cartoon, I had worries that the director might butcher the film. My fears were completely unfounded. Relative to other action films, Transformers is a delightful romp with explosions, fight scenes and plenty of eye candy. The robots were very well animated. The movie is definitely something worth watching, and would probably be worth it to own a DVD.

The main criticisms from other people were the overall lack of plot, characterisation, bad directing/editing/cutting. But I think that such a criticism is very harsh. This is an action film! Not an Oscar-contending film! Compared to the "good" films, of course, it sucks. But that's like comparing apples and oranges. An action film is not meant or known for a deep plot or ecellent characterisation. It's supposed to be a fun film, where the audience turns off their brains and go more more base motives. On those factors, Transformers is an excellent action film that holds its own against other action films. Now. Die Hard 4, anyone?

With my overall lack of interest in anime, namely Naruto and Bleach, I search the net for some new anime. One of the newer anime series that is highly recommended is the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. It's about a girl called Haruhi Suzumiya who is bored with the ordinary and wants to find the extraordinary, like aliens, time travellers or espers. The story is told from the point-of-view of Kyon, a normal guy who is dragged into Haruhi's world. It's a fun anime and the story is quite good. The two main characters are also well-fleshed out and the animation is smooth and looks very good. Throw in a hint of mystery and a tiny dash of Evangelion-ness, and it's a hit anime series, clocking in a 14 episodes. Note that the episodes were broadcast in a non-linear fashion, so the storyline can become incoherent or confusing at times. Some people prefered to watch it in its actual chronological order rather than its broadcast order. But it's good. Highly recommended.

Oh and did you hear? There is a new children's book in town.
The man in the picture is supposed to be House.

Take it Down to the Wire

Nothing much to report on. I have clinical placement next week, which apparently is the same time this camping trip is happenning. Can't do much about it.

Called up Westmead Hospital this morning to get detail on my clinical. I think I spent about 10 minutes on hold before actually being transferred to the Chief Radiographer. I'm kind of pissed that it took that longer, but I have had worse and the hospital has (presumably) more important things to do. I was tranferred 4 times. I remember. Because I said "Hello, I'm a student from USyd and I'm on clinical placement next week. Can I please speak to the Chief Radiographer?" four times. Ah well. That's done and now I play the waiting game.

Exam results aren't out yet. The grades on the website are like 'not yet received'. I've got fingers crossed. Pretty sure I got at least Credits.

The last episode of Doctor Who. The season finale for the third season. What can I say? It was an awesome ride. There are a few things I disagree on, like one death and the ways the physics was whacked off a bit, but that's television for you. It's not about the science, it's about the emotional ride. And let me tell you, it was one hell of a ride, especially the end.

Heh. I so want a sonic screwdriver of the Doctor. There's one on Ebay. It's a replica with a pen and UV lights and stuff. I might get it. Let me go find some money. There must be some under my bed. There must be!

The series has peaked a bit of interest in the theory of time travel. And it's a bit more complicated than I originally thought. Take the grandfather paradox. You go back in time to kill your grandfather before you were born, thus creating the paradox. Since you killed you grandfather and since you never existed, you never actually travelled back in time to kill you grandfather. This implies that you never actually killed your grandfather, and so then you were actually conceived anyway to go kill your grandfather. Yeah. A bit of a mouthful, but there you go. Wikipedia helps a lot.

Been playing F.E.A.R. It's one of those titles where the developers chose the title first then decided to make an acronym out of it later. So FEAR stands for First Encounter Assault Recon. It's a pretty scary game. Not scary like in-your-face-monsters-and-shit scary, but more like freaky-little-girl-Japanese-horror scary. I literally can't play it alone. Well I can, during daylight hours. But as the sun sets, I have to have my brother watching over my shoulder or vice versa. So yeah. Pretty scary shit.

And here's a little something-something
You would you choose? Limit of two, three, say? I'd put my money on Ms Korea and Russia.

Looking at Distant Things

Exams are over. Well, it was over back on Wednesday, and I've been spending the days catching up on some reading that I had to give up.

Seriously, if I had the time and the money and the means, I'd probably do nothing but buy and read books. But I don't. Still, it's my way way of relaxing. Sitting down and reading a good books or two. Right now, I'm reading this book called Life in Vietnam: through a looking-glass darkly by Nguyen Ngoc Phach. It's about, well, life in Vietnam obviously, but after the war when the Communists took over government. It's written in English but it also has these short poems called vè. I use the term poems loosely as the vè were mainly written by average people criticising the government. Some of them make a surprisingly lot of sense and some at applicable to the modern day, despite being written some hundreds of years ago. It has English translations and explanations so it's understandable. If you're Viet, you should read this.

I spent most of the morning, cleaning up my room. It was pretty messy, since I practice the First Available Surface filing method, so my table was covered in stacks of papers and folders, and a good portion of the floor as well. I even broke open my computer case and spent some time to get rid of all the dust inside. Unfortunately, one of the fans has developed this annoying whirr. I can't do much about it. Maybe a can of compressed air to get at the dust in those hard to reach places.

Tomorrow I am uncapped so let the bandwidth flow! Also the season finale of Doctor Who season 3 hits the air. I can't wait for it. The last episode ended on a massive cliffhanger, so I'm stoked.

Besides that, nothing else is happening. I have clinical placement, but that's like a week away. Lesley has been thinking about grabbing a group of people to go watch the live action Transformers, and if it happens then I'm in. Oh Transformers...now that was a pretty good show. The newer shows nowadays kinda suck. Like the Pokemon on Channel Ten. The basic premise of the group showing up, then Team Rocket trying to mess things up, is still the same since the very first episode of Pokemon. I reckon they should drop Ash and co and make a totally new series with new characters. A massive reboot, so to say.

Back to reading.

The Sound of Drums

Close. So close to the end of exams. Then twelve days of holidays, then a week of clinical practice, then another week of holidays, then back to uni.

Last exam is medical radiation physics. It won't go too bad. I had Radiobiology exam yesterday and sucked big time. I only knew a handful of answers and the rest were more on instinct and luck. MC questions are both a blessing and a curse in my opinion. When you know the answers, it's easy, but when you don't it comes down to probability and instinct. You look at the answers and you get the feeling that C must be right. That's probably the most useful tip that one can get for doing MCQ. Your first instinct is usually right. Remember all those MCQ we had to do since the beginning. It was a lot. I remember around the late days of primary school and the early days to high school, there were all these little tips and rules to MCQ. Some useful, most...not really. The correct answer is always B. Take a guess, there's a 25% chance you'll get it right. Three identical answers (B,B,B etc) is usually the limit and the if the next answer is thought to be the same, then something has gone wrong...unless the answers are deliberately the same for four in a row to psych you out...those were the days.

Despite the cappage, I've managed to downloading ep 12 of Doctor Who. I won't spoil it, but it an amazing episode and is filled with all this info about the Time Lords, their home planet, some of their customs. And the season finale looks dam amazing. Then gone. With exception of the Christmas Special, there won't be any Doctor Who eps until season 4 next year, starting sometimes in April/May.

I have obtained Simcity DS, but have yet to play it. Simcity 2000 was probably the first real game that I actually bought. And it was so interesting. Acting as mayor, trying to build a prosperous city while keeping the people happy and avoiding disasters. It started to get more complex from then on. Simcity 3000 was pretty good and I haven't tried Simicty 4. Simcity 2000 was designed by Will Wright, the same dude behind The Sims. Now that was quite addictive. And while both games were great, the publication of so many expansion packs seem to be more of a money grab by EA than anything else. But there's no denying it was one hell of a game.

No news on the job front. I've sent my resume almost 3 weeks back to a potential employer and they haven't replied. Their website is still "Coming Soon", so I'll wait it out. If it goes online and there is still no word, then I'm off to find another potential job. I wish I had a stable income of cash.

*sigh*

If wishes were fishes, then we'd all cast nets.

I put the Laughter in Slaughter

Three exams down, and three left to go. I have Human Biology, Radiobiology and Medical Radiation Physics. Radiobiology is going to be the tough one. I hated all lectures, cos the lecturer was so-so. I swear the book is a better alternative.

I told myself that I would start studying a month before the actual exams. Well that fucking worked. I find myself studying like a crazy man a week before the actual exams. Arrgh, so much for trying to improve myself. But I think I'll pass. Probably Credit, may even Distinction. Anyway the weather has been acting up lately so staying indoors and warm, nose deep in books and notes is still a preferable idea.

Still sitting around, studying while chomping on some chocolate and slamming down shots of Coke is not going to make my body healthy. If there is one thing I truly believe in, it's that as you go through the University of Life, you must have a PhD in Getting the Fuck Away when Shit Happens. And you're gonna have trouble getting the fuck away on chocolate and Coke. Motivation. I need some of that. As soon as the 300 DVD comes out, I'm on it like stink on cheese. It's probably the most manly, testosterone laden piece of work since...since a whole lot of other manly things. I'd probably won't be Spartan, I would be able to run like the wind whenever trouble hits.

After the aforementioned exams, of course.

Ahem.

How do you guys dream? I occasionally get these weird, surreal dreams that make me wonder whether I should write them down and make a book or something. Like how a giant octopus is ravaging the beaches, how sentient spotches of colour ink are disrupting the world's electricity supply, or how there's a group of teenagers caught in a world of time travel, big explosions and sexual tension. I don't know about other people, but when I dream, it's deadly real except for the fact that there is actually no sound, but I can understand what people are saying as if there was sound. Makes sense? No? Don't worry.

Doctor Who season 3 is beginning to come to an end. Two more episodes before the season ends. The 11th episode is an absolute blast. With the revelation of another Time Lord. But I won't say who. I know a few people eagerly awaiting the ABC to start showing some Who action, but dammit, get cable and download the episodes.

Read Tales of MU. It's worth it and addictive as crack.

More cramming. Onwards.

I didn't start this fire

Why am I posting this blog at 6am-ish in the morning? Because I was a moron. I fell asleep after lunch for a 2-hour sleep because I was hella tired from studying. Then I went to sleep earlier than usual at just past 10pm. Then my body kicked my awake at 4am. I tried to go back to sleep, but I couldn't. No matter how much I tossed and turned, I couldn't get any shut eye. So much for sleeping in on the weekends.

I'd probably study some more and maybe get started on those anatomy sample exams. First exam is my Preparation for Practice (DR) on the 19th. I'm pretty sure I can handle the MCQ but it's the short-response that has me somewhat worried. I should try to find some sample exams or something.

That's one thing I'd wish was more prevalent. Past papers like from the past five years or something, but since there are like a gazillion courses at a tertiary level, I don't see it happening. That's one thing I liked (if you could use the word) about the HSC. You could buy a book with all the past papers since like 1988 or something. I think that these past papers helped me get a decent mark for the HSC or at least the confidence to walk in and tackle the damn papers.

Despite some procrastination on my part, studying is going fairly well. I'm pretty sure that I'm not going to get distinctions for all of them but I won't fail. Of course, there is a little thing that has been distracting me: Tales of MU. It's a story-in-progress about a student in her first year at a magical university (hence the MU) where the students include nymphs, centaurs, elves and other fantasy creatures, as well as humans. It's updating daily and it is addictive as crack. This author can write, and write really well. Seriously I would kill to write as well as that. Plus the bite-sized pieces are enough to fire you up and getting all excited about the next piece. So yeah, check it out.

Clinical is getting me all worked up. Its exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time. Sure this will be the first time I get to go to real work setting, but then performing the procedures on a real person is different to doing it on a human analog. I shiver from anticipation and a little fear. Well, it will be fun I'm sure.

Weather is pissing me off. It rains hardcore then freezes over at night. Usually, right now the sun is beginning to rise so there is a hint of light, but looking out my window, it's almost pitch black.

Damn it all.

The War on War

Updates will become sporadic as I study up for my end of semester exams, but I'll post the occasional post maybe with a picture or Youtube video.

Joined Facebook at the behest of Jimmy. His claim of 25% of Seftoners are facebooked was strong, although I'm not sure everyone is active. Well, it does seem to be more of a way to keep a thread of contact between old friends.

Managed to get Halo 2 to work and I'm a bit disappointed. It was a lazy port from the Xbox straight to Vista with very little changes. The fact that you have to pay a monthly fee to play online multiplayer does hurt, but I hear good things about it. Maybe a month as a trial or something.

Weather has been swinging about lately and now it's getting colder. To be honest, I actually prefer the rain. Because the clouds ensures that the heat (or what little of it) doesn't escape into the sky and so it's a tiny bit warmer. Now with the few days of clear skys, it's nice in the mornings but colder at night.

Oh, and here's a little something for gamers out there.

Sometimes even lawyers need lawyers.

Well, no more lectures because the first semester of university is over. Not really. There are still exams to be held. I was freaking out a minute or fifteen when I realised that I knew what day and times my exams were on, but not the exact place. Yes, I know it is held in the campus, duh, just not the exact rooms. But a quick trip to MyUni cleared it up and I can now focus even more on studying.

I've been invited to a BBQ this Sunday along with the whole family, but unless the rain decides to stop, I don't have much hope. Unless the location has a veranda, then maybe. Still, whenever I'm invited to a BBQ, I momentarily cringe. Without exception, all the BBQs I have attended, with the exception of my own, seem to stuff up the food. Not all the food is bad per se, but some people don't know who to do a BBQ properly. At best, you get slightly raw meat. The worst? I went to a BBQ where the host had trouble with the wind, because the gas BBQ couldn't get hot enough. So the food was massively undercooked. So he cranked it up to the redline and everything was massively overcooked. Maybe it's just the Asian families I've been to that can't do a BBQ properly. You go to an Aussie's place, and you can almost guarantee that they'll do a decent BBQ.

On another train of thought, I remember one of the lecturers encouraging us to make friends or maintain friendships with people who are studying different courses. To have a big picture of what other professions and courses are going to be like or something. That said I keeping forgetting to ask for neuroscience notes, because everyone I talk to about neuroscience says it's a bitch, while the few scraps of info I have on it sounds interesting. Maybe it sounds interesting because I don't have to actually study for a test on it. Anyway, Jack sent me an essay on this family law case and it was an interesting read. In a nutshell, the husband sues the wife because two of their children aren't his and she deceived him by not telling him and as a result he suffered mental and psychiatric trauma as a result. He lost because the judges decided that he really had no reason to suspect anything before the paternity test and that the wife keeping quiet didn't count as deceit. So the tort failed. Despite the 10000 words and 8 pages, it was an interesting read. Still I don't know why Jack asked me to edit it. I'm going to be a radiographer, not a lawyer. Still, interesting and thought provoking stuff.

And finally, Nam has jumping onto the blogging bandwagon. A bit late maybe, but it seems regularly updated for now. Go read it. Because reading blogs actually helps to complete your work faster. Seriously.

Marching On

Now entering the final week of the semester, the days have become more focused on study. No one wants to fail their end of semesters.

Clinical briefing today for MRS. It was basically checking that you have all the required items like CPR cert, PRM, vaccination etc. It took up the better part of 2 hours almost. It really depended on what line you decided to join and when you joined it. I joined a line where the checking was quick and very brief. The guy was like, "yep, yep, you got everything." I'm not sure if he actually saw some of the certs that people were trying to show him. There was also a quick test on the clinical practice. But it was a bit hard, and didn't focus on the ethic and legal side of things, which everyone studied like hell because it's like the largest part of the unit.

Some good news now. My group mark for our presentation on infection control was scored 19/22. Not bad. Not bad at all.

Despite the slowly increasing workload, I'm still managing to keep up with House and Doctor Who. Did you know that Torchwood, a Doctor Who spinoff, is going to appear on Channel Ten? The sole reason I believe is that one of the main characters is Captain Jack Harkness. Because if you call him Captain Jack it almost like Captain Jack Sparrow. I want to watch the third Pirates of the Carribean, but it's been getting rather poor reviews. I'm a pretty shallow movie viewer. I really liked all three movies, and didn't really get why everyone seems to dislike it. Bah.

Back to study.

Ever pulled teeth out of a chicken?

Sorru about the lack of updates. I've been capped for the past two weeks and you can't imagine how painfully slow it was. Plus catching up on work and revision required me to log onto USyd's WebCT which was downright slow. Moving on...

I now know where I'm going for clinical practice. From the 9th to the 13th July, I'll be at Westmead Hospital, which is suprisingly close to Parramatta. While it's nice to know where I'll be going I am a little bit apprehensive about the whole thing. Still, I'm sure it'll be fun and I'll learn a whole bunch of stuff.

Lectures, as all university students know, can be quite boring depending on the lecturer and/or the subject matter. My lectures on radiation protection can be said to be quite boring, mainly because the subject is a bit dry. So the lecture is kinda boring, unless the lecturer goes of on a tangent. On one lecture we were talking about non-ionising radiation, specifically lasers and their class. The higher the class, the more powerful it is. Australia supposedly bans class 3 lasers for personal use, but one can easily buy one off Ebay. The funny thing was the lecturer joked that he bought such a laser to aim at the naval base nearby and see how long it takes for them to respond. Hopefully, not that quickly.

I'm also one of those people joining the ranks of "I want money, but don't have a job". I haven't been searching jobs all that zealously though, but having some extra money seems like a good thing, right about now.

So everyone, keep it up and try not to fail. I know several who came into hair's width of failing. I came damn close to failing. Too close.

Let's take it slow...

I'm capped. Stop. Will post more later. Stop. Still here. Stop. Painful. Stop. Please let the pain. Stop.

Impossible Dream

Here's a little quote off Serena's blog

drummer of the doors, john densmore said this (in regards to rejecting an offer by cadillac for 15 million dollars to use a doors song in their commercial): "People lost their virginity to this music, got high for the first time to this music. I've had people say kids died in Vietnam istening to this music, other people say they know someone who didn't commit suicide because of this music…. On stage, when we played these songs, they felt mysterious and magic. That's not for rent."

The point being that music is something quite wonderful. Now there's plenty of music, that while are really good and all, just seem rather poppy. The music is nice for entertainment and that's about it. But in the ocean of sugary pop songs and repetitive beats, there are these songs that are fucking amazing. That these songs are mysterious, magical and powerful. Honestly I've never been into the whole "powerful, life-changing music" thing.

But.

This Honda advert pops up with what I feel as the most inspirational song ever. Holy crap. I'm going all sappy over a song that was written for a music back in 1965. Check out the ad below. This is one hell of a melding between video and music. Damn inspirational.



The song is The Impossible Dream, sung by Andy Williams.