Wednesday, June 06, 2007

A Night in the Life of a Medical Student Who Procrastinated

"Haha, you asking Kok? He's the guy that called me two days before the University examination asking me for the time, venue and the order of the subjects we are being tested."

Shaki, answering before I could,
when someone asked me about a class test

This is just another short, filler post. You'll get a lot of these this month.


Right now it's past 4 am. I just completed my insane load of backed-up Self-Directed and Independent Learning Microbiology assignments. There's a visible dent on the lateral side of the middle finger on my right hand where a pen rested on for the past 5 hours. The proximal interphalangeal joint of my little finger (on the same hand) is now killing me after being scraped repeatedly over and over again across the page of my assignment notebook from carving out lines after lines of condensed factoids which I harvested from three Microbiology textbooks that are probably heavy enough to kill a small elephant with adequate trajectory.

On my desk was two empty cans of Amul's Kool Café which I favoured over the other brands (mainly because they use 'K' instead of 'C' for 'Kool'). Sitting not to too far away from them is an empty packet of Cheetos, which was my dinner and supper all-in-one because I simply couldn't find the time to get away for a bite. There's another packet of Cheetos on the floor beside my chair but I seriously doubt that I'm going to open it anytime soon. Synthetic cheese flavoured cornmeal crisps do not agree well with my stomach (or my epicurean taste buds either, for that matter). I have 261 songs on my Winamp playlist (plus a few thousand more stored up somewhere), and most of their lyrics have already been committed to my memory through a constant regimen of overexposure and chronic conditioning. Sometimes, I even leave the music playing when I sleep. I have less nightmares that way.

light

A little more than an hour ago about 3 am, the fluorescent tube that functions as the sole illuminant of my bedroom come study-room come media-room began to flicker rapidly. Had I been a photosensitive epileptic, I'd seize up like one of House's patient o' the week, hit my noggin on the corner of my desk, and die bleeding like a pig. Thankfully, I'm not a photosensitive epileptic - or an epileptic of any kind. Now, where was I? Oh yea, fluorescent stroboscopic discotheque WTF.

After each successive blink, the fluorescent lamp dimmed perceptibly. The room became darker and darker, and soon, I found myself sitting in total inky blackness with my pen still resting in its groove in my middle finger and my lips making the shapes of the syllables "Oh" and "Fuck" mutely - in that order. Then a minute later, the fluorescent-lamp-that-died began to flicker back to life again; an encore of its earlier light-and-soundless show, only this time, in reverse. I'm no expert when it comes to electrical stuff, but I'm quite sure fluorescent tubes aren't allowed to do that. I'll go check with their union.

A year ago, such a bizarre domestic phenomenon would no doubt kick my ultra-fertile imagination into hyperdrive. I would have panicked and started praying to the gods in all the world's major religions. I might have even leapt into bed and curled up like a... err... wuss1 under my blanket. But just now when it happened, all I did was grope about for my cellphone for a bit of light, and wonder if I can substitute the the dead tube with the one in my anteroom so I can resume my mountain o' work.

Medical school does that to people, y'know? It kills your imagination.

Okay, my self-alloted break is now over. I'm going to start swotting for that stupid Haematology test I'm going to sit for in a few short hours. Pretty pointless post, huh? I thought so too.



Back to work,
k0k s3n w4i

1 I'm trying hard not to use the 'P' word here.

You Know You're in India When...

... your university has a Yoga Department;

yog

yog2

It's as much a science here as surgery and psychiatry, I tell ya.

"Time is free, but it's priceless. You can't own it, but you can use it. You can't keep it, but you can spend it. Once you've lost it you can never get it back."

Harvey McKay, businessman and columnist

Something for my med school colleagues, this quote.


The head-hunting season hath cometh. Our heads that is, and the lecturers are out for blood.

Yep, it's the dreaded block exams again. Love to stay and chat, but gotta run (at least for tonight). I know I promised a proper post this time, but I try as I could, I was not able to finish writing it today. And in case you're wondering; yes, I really do put a lot of thoughts into my (proper) posts when I pen them - and this one I'm writing is particularly personal.

Maybe tomorrow, okay?

Or, next week.



Running man,
k0k s3n w4i

Sunday, June 03, 2007

Here's Something for Med School Kids

"... according to that online aptitude test I took, Radiology is the most appropriate field of specialty for me."

Me to Shaki, during lecture on Friday

"*points and laughs at k0k* Hahahahaha! Give me the web address for that test. I'm sure I'll get something better."

Shaki

... and next day, about midnight...

"WTF, I got Radiology as my best choice too!"

Shaki, over the phone


This is going to be a short post (but don't worry, I'll more than make up for it with my next one). On the buzz of a brief web wanderlust, I stumbled across this online Medical Specialty Aptitude Test in the University of Virginia's site.

I'm sure everyone who's in medical school now would already have a few possible specialties in mind that they would probably go for later in their practices. Of course, wanting something and being worthy of that thing are two completely different things. This test purportedly assesses the suitability of the temperament, attitude, and individual quirks of the candidate taking it, and provides a list of the most appropriate specialties for that person;

msat
Click Me to take test!

Radiology (I'll kill you if you laugh) is my top-ranker apparently, but Infectious Diseases and Urology comes in pretty high too; both I consider as über kewl speshulties mainly because they are Dr, Gregory House's (okay, okay, his was Infectious Diseases and Nephrology; I know the difference, dammit!). Incidentally, I scored lowest for Family Doctor (is this even a specialty?) and Paediatrics (I eat kids). I'm not much of people person and I bet the Aptitude Test smelled that a gigamile away - and decided I'm better off fiddling with X-rays, CT and MRI machines.

Bah.


Do post up your bests and worsts here after you have done it. Now that you know mine, it's only fair that you tell me yours too.

***

On a somewhat related note, check out this blog for Malaysian doctors and medical students which I found to be a rather engaging read (even if you aren't in the healthcare line);

med
Click me too!

I suspect that I discovered the link to the Medical Specialty Aptitude Test here but I can't really recall for sure.

***

On a totally unrelated note whatsoever, according to Nuffnang's stat-watzisname, you can apparently reach my blog on Google using the keywords; karnataka state girls showing their pussy.

nuff
Don't click me, please.

Last I checked, it was a page one hit.

Note to self: Must try to stop using the word 'pussy' in my posts.



Lazy Sunday Lounger,
k0k s3n w4i

Saturday, June 02, 2007

Wroight?

"Haven't you heard? The refreshers are no longer allowed to drop a block."

Someone


An academic year in my school is divided into four 'blocks' and a 'block exam' would be held at the end of each 'block'. At the end of the year, there would be a 'university exam' where 30% of its total marks is contributed by my performance in the 'block exams'.

My class, Batch 18, is the last group of undergrads graced with the privilege of dropping the score from one of these 'block exams' - that is, only the best 3 out of the 4 'block exams' is averaged out to make up that 30%.

'Refreshers' (students which failed one or more of the subjects in the previous academic year) is detained for six months to sit for the next 'university exam'. Luckily for them, they are still allowed that privilege - or so I thought till not too long ago.

What I am about to say next is purely hearsay, and as we all know, hearsays are suspect at the best of circumstances,
so let us not take my word for it, okay?

Quite recently, someone told me that the 'refreshers' are no longer given the benefit of disregarding the grade of one of their 'block exams' in the calculation. The reason of that was said to be because some (not all) students from Batch 19 went to the faculty and tried to convince them to extend that 'block-dropping' policy to their batch as well - citing that the refreshers, who are going to sit in the same university exam as Batch 19, still enjoyed that policy. In brief, the students from Batch 19's argument is "it's not fair".

The faculty then proceeded to be "fair", and stripped that privilege from the Refreshers. My reaction when I heard that was, "What the fuck?" - my exact verbatim.

wtf_by_B_F_G

As far as I can see, no one can be blamed for this rather unfortunate turn of events. The Batch 19 students who complained, if this story is true, are only acting out for their own good and could not have foreseen such a thing happening. But it cannot be denied that their train of reasoning that "it wasn't fair" had directly damned the refresher's right to that 'block-dropping' privilege.


What that few Batch 19 student did wasn't wrong - but it sure as hell didn't feel right either.

My point of sharing this story (regardless whether it's true or not) is this;

Many things in life are like that.

Drive safe and switch on your Conscience, so you don't knock down any innocent pedestrians.



You konscience,
k0k s3n w4i

Lesson #5

One who speaks evil to you of others behind their backs,
can speak evil of you to others behind yours.
Listen, nod, but trust these people not.


_backstab_by_sml_e

Bloody back-stabbing hypocrites exposed, ironically, by other bloody back-stabbing hypocrites. Poetic justice.