One last day. One last deep breath. One last shot at it.
Very alarmed by the amount of stuff that's been leaking out of my brain, and I really mean it. I know, I know ... lack of repetition, lack of reinforcement at 1 hour, 24 hours, and 7 days (still remember this junk, Montyelm?) Well, it's too late now. And it's hard enough covering all that ground without finding even more time to repeat stuff.
Had a major fright last night, I unearthed a set of notes which I *thought* I had finished, but apparently not. And guess what? It's about HIV. i.e. If this comes out for the essays, I'd be screwed. Stayed up late forcing the stuff down my gut with tears streaming down my face.
Haha .. not. The dramatics! But it did feel like that.
You know how those contestants from Survivor start off looking like chunks of beef and, a few months later, end up having saggy skin filled with aqueous fats??
Well, I suspect that's what's happening to me. No doubt I didn't start off looking like a chunk of beef (although YX would be quick to point out that our dear Jit from J1 definitely thinks otherwise), I'm pretty sure that I've been gaining a hell lot of fat. And yet, my jeans almost slipped off me today.
Probably losing muscle mass, gaining tonnes of fat and having chunks of loose skin flapping around. OMG. I should just die right now.
Oh, and talking about getting fat .. this is belated, but there's a new recipe up on the food blog - beef stew with bouquet garni. We made a huge pot of this for a potluck gathering, and it was emptied to the very bottom. Many of us won't be in the mood to cook right now, but perhaps show it to your mums and drop huge hints? ;) Cheers.
Utter grossness. I needed 7g of buffer to bring the alkalinity back up, and now it's overshot the mark. It's not grossly high, still within limits (in fact, Xenia - if I still had any - would be loving me right now) but I guess it's the rapid bolus that did it. The coral's aren't happy at all. Fack it .. I don't have time to tend to the dumb chemical balance in the tank right now. Dumped in 500g of phosphate resin though, and threw in 1 teaspoon of sugar.
The phosphate resin's to adsorb the excess phosphate, I'm going to bring it down to 0. The sugar should provide some source of carbon to create a bacterial bloom which should then deplete the high nitrates in the tank. But doing this would shift phosphate up, and hence the resin. So here we go.
Calcium - perfect Alkalinity - perfect Strontium - perfect pH - perfect Phosphate - soon to be perfect Nitrate - soon to be perfect Corals - still unhappy. WTF. Lol. Oooh, wish I owned iodine and magnesium test kits, that'll really fuel my control freakiness.
Haha .. sounds like the K+ - glucose - insulin regimen for diabetic ketoacidosis. Meddling with all the dumbass ions. Ironically, acid-base and all these ions are the ones that are giving me quite a headache - medicine, not my tank.
Spent the entire day doing MCQs. Alas, and I JUST discovered (though I heard) that the MCQ test we had some days ago had questions repeated from previous years. Let's hope this happens for Thursday.
Some pre-D day parameters, amidst scouring books on Down Syndrome (sure hope this comes out either for a short case or for essays .. but life is never a bed of roses, is it?)
Quite F*ed up, is it not? The cations are easily corrected, but the anions ... arghhhhhhhh. What can I expect, after half a year of no water changes and yet massive doses of phytoplankton and zooplankton? Damn those sponges, flame scallop and razorfish, hahahahaha.
Just dosed a total of 0.9 meq/L of buffer into the tank to raise alkalinity to 3.13 meq/L, no wonder the calcium is sky-high - the coralline algae aren't able to take up calcium because of the low alkalinity and high phosphate, and the pH has been swinging from 8.03-8.4. Not good. Time for a massive (50%) water change sometime in late April ... the dumbass Pura NitrateLock resin is OBVIOUSLY not doing its job of keeping the nitrate levels down, what a complete waste of $.
I think this is the first time I'm using these test reagents after winning them from a photo competition. Saw a really phat equipment made by Hanna Instruments the other day though, it was so OOOOH! Hate to think about the price however. It's a portable colorimeter (size of half a laptop) that measures dozens of ions electronically. Wow, no more titration!
Is anyone else also feeling like this? I'm just this |---| short of plunging a knife into my head to dig out the decayed parts of my brain, so that there's space for more.
I, my dears, am in dire straits.
This is next to hopeless, next to hopeless. Please pray for me, I'll be ever so thankful. Revision started 3 months ago, and yet at the end of the road, there still seems to be TONNES that I need to do.
I've been reading almost every page of the texts - just reading, mind. These are to be put away at the back of the head, so that in the unfortunate circumstance where the examiner asks me some obscure question, I'll be able to utter a couple of sentences and make my, "OMG, I've REALLY read about it somewhere, but I can't remember it out of nerves!" facade look just that wee bit more authentic.
Three. Three more days to hit out hard at the essentials, or otherwise what's more popularly known as "spotting". BTW, there isn't really such a thing as spotting for this exam. Anything - ANYTHING - could come out. Look at last year's syringomyelia. Tell me, has anyone even uttered anything close to syringomyelia in the last 5 years of study?
Ah, I didn't have to hang myself after all - miraculously, oddly, and surprisingly, I managed to complete today's work. Considering I whiled much of the afternoon away, it means I can afford to increase the workload even more. As to how much actually stays in - that's another matter altogether. I'm convinced I suffer from the Leaky Brain Syndrome.
Managed to give myself a little treat today (thanks for the idea, Monty - although I'm not sure I totally deserved the treat, lol!) by going on a shopping spree, and doing an impromptou rearrangement of the tank's rockwork. The final result? The hidden gems in my tank! Goodness. All of a sudden I'm vividly reminded of Prof. Low CH's famous pronouncement of "flowers in the desert and corals in the sea" (what an adorable man, I'm praying real hard I do get him for my surgical finals). There was a bunch of red Discosoma mushroom corals hidden away right at the back of the tank; I brought these forward to form an archway that I was so totally satisfied with. See if you concur with me!
Blue-cheek trigger and Henniochus butterfly checking out the new mushroom archway.
Bought this bright yellow Montipora digitata at a steal today.
And the final look of the tank: Shrunken skeleton at the top of the left-sided rock formation is an Euphyllia ancora that is also a new addition, and has not opened fully yet.
Going to change the right-sided light to a 250W Radium bulb after the exams, I guess. And waiting on finding some decent orange tree sponge, re-trying a blue sponge (bloody idiots keep dying on me) and - if the M.digitata does well in the tank - I'm going to get me one of those bright pink Seriatopora hystrix as a treat. Other planned additions for the future:
Red sea pulsing Xenia (not the horrid brown ones I used to have, YX. These are white!) Cynarina coral - maybe a red one, if I can afford it Green star polyps Blue discosoma mushrooms And, after I get my old calcium reactor back up and running, maybe a clam or two.
Nine. Nine days. What a bad time to start slacking off, I did next to nothing last night but read ridiculous crap like polycythemia rubra vera and thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura. Need to finish off my haematology desperately, and move on to get rid of O&G revision plus a good chunk of paeds. OMG OMG OMG.
Full recipe is on the Gastronomia page (ignore the strange look of the page, my template formatting went wrong somehow - I'll fix it in April), I just had to document it - YX knows this, but I have a HUGE problem with preparing meats. This might be a psychiatric case, but I don't eat meat that I cook myself - there just seems to be this horrible smell that comes from the meat, yet the others will be spooning the stuff down. For this particular attempt however, OMG, I finished everything up, muahahahaha.
Guess who's the handsome boy today? *Woof woof!!* Gave him a nice treat of boiled chicken breasts today. He refused to eat those mandarins.
One of the more dismal CNYs that I've had - my family's all off to visit my gran, but I just had to stay behind. I may not do as much work (perhaps even less!!) but the guilt. Ah yes, the guilt. I need to take a leaf out of Holmes' book. So, all lonely now, and I really mean LONELY. Almost wanted to call my parents so that they can head back to pick me up. Almost.
Oh, and there was some excitement yesterday too, which brought me to NUH 2 days in a row. Mom was fiddling with one of those crazy self-opening and self-closing umbrellas that come with a spring-loaded handle. Well, of all days for this to happen, it just had to happen on CNY eve - the handle sprang out and whacked her left eye with the force of a bat, with slight eyelid laceration, a huge periorbital haematoma, and - gasp! - a hyphaema! It was bad, with transient loss of visual acuity.
Prescribed Rx for traumatic iritis with hyphaema is bed rest, cyclopegics and steroids, which I have, but when I examined her eye 4 hours later, it was bad. Very bad. Whipped out my trusty ophthalmoscope, and couldn't see past the anterior chamber. Red reflex lost in left eye. Left pupil was dilated, irregular and with a sluggish light reflex. Sent her to the NUH A&E (what must the doc have thought?? "This med student must have been too stressed up, went to punch his mom ..." - I could read it in his eyes, and quickly explained that it was an umbrella that inflicted the blunt trauma, not me) and with an appointment with the ophthalmo registrar today. Yes, on CNY. They come for ward rounds, and we were to ambush him in the ward.
Turns out that there were 2 ophthalmos there, one of whom remembered me from my year 3 days. Shocking. Made a fool of myself too, OMG. He was sitting behind the slit lamp examining another patient, and I walked in holding the A&E letter - he held out his LEFT hand, and without a moment's hesitation, I too held out my LEFT hand and shook it .. until a fleeting look of surprise passed his face and I realised that it was the letter he wanted. OMG OMG OMG. I almost died on the spot after that. Some slight secondary glaucoma, and as the NUH pharmacy was closed, I had to go round to Guardian to get the timolol. Yes, glaucoma can't wait. I'd have stopped mom from going to Malaysia if I had my way, but then it's gran's birthday today and mom would have been really upset. Well, she'll be back for a followup on Wed, just to make sure there isn't a blow-out fracture and retinal detachment. Shouldn't be lah, it's not THAT traumatic. The ophthalmologists sure had a good time scaring me about the exams today, bleargh!!
Cher being really funny towards the end - listen CAREFULLY to the lyrics. =D Hilarious!
"You're not listenin' to .... MY GOD DAMNED HAIR!!"
Just for a little background info, she wears wigs and changes through several of them during her concerts. I suppose this particular one gave her some trouble during this song!
Ooooh, IKEA has cheap Lithops for sale now! Going at $2.90 each, it's quite a steal. Big and fat too, and as some of them have flowered, these are 4 or 5-year-old plants. Go grab them while you can!
Incidentally, I've NEVER had success with them. I either drown them, or parch them. Did a tiny bit of reading this morning (there isn't a lot of information on the web, unfortunately, and definitely none available in the local setting), and did up a simple chart to mimic the conditions they have in the African deserts.
Since some of the IKEA plants have flowered, they're actually in the Autumn phase. I'm leaving them to totally dry out first before watering aain, and once the new leaves form I'll stop the watering. Should work this time, I hope!
This horrid feeling .. you know, when you want to do so much but there's just so much inertia. I end up chasing my own tail all day long. Need a hell lot more determination to push through. Oh well, I'm going to finish up neurology today, a bunch of paeds, and have an enjoyable evening with psychiatry.
After listening to Li Lin's comments on The Couple, I think she's complete bullshit. The best thing she said tonight, though, was that totally beautiful "NEXT!" Lol. Out of the 4 judges, I'm shocked that only Gladys Tay has any background in dancesport judging. No wonder they let thrash like that in. Today they did do a bit of Rock n' Roll (sans the dumbass aerials that were improperly executed) but OMG. I think all the local Rock n' Roll greats like Ben & Sunny must be vomitting their guts out by now. OUT!! OUT WITH THRASH!!
WTF is this???
On a different note, I did enjoy the first group's performance today. And also the last, although they would have done well to include some of the more classic Samba moves like Samba rolls, Cruzados walks and Shadow voltas. Yeah, those would be nice.
Oh, and watch out for the real stuff - the groups called Two, Melvin & Sharon, and Dancerholics. Sing, from the first group, has a crazy credibility in the Lindy scene, and I was really glad they did their Charleston routine for the qualifying rounds. She also happens to be one of the founders of Jitterbugs Swingapore =) Good stuff! The group Just The Two of Us looks good too. I'm afraid I can't comment on the hip hop side, having no real discerning eye for that style of dance. It's surprising that the 2 err .. geriatric groups in this competition chose to do the Tango. Give me the real Samba, Jive and Cha Cha!
Zar zar, why didn't you and your group join the competition!??! It'd be so refreshing to see some traditional dancing!! Really enjoyed the belly dance couple, although hmmm ... right. I have no right to comment about people's figures.
Nope, not good at all. Went into a fit of confusion and anxiety, and came up with a totally impossible diagnosis for one of my 2 short cases - collapsing pulse together with an ejection systolic murmur radiating to the carotid arteries. Great.
Ah, my final week (hopefully - I'm praying hard!!) of being a student. Yes, come 2 May there will no doubt be a new set of troubles, bitching and grousing, but for now I'll just have to satisfy myself on whacking the life out of my brains. It's a wonder why I don't get nightmares about stacks of books, scowling professors and irate patients assualting me bodily.
Lots of decisions to be made today. Not just the dumbass 3 pieces of paper that we have to submit, but regarding tomorrow too. Someone's behavior totally irritated me last week, and irked me to the extent where I'd have shot him point-blank if I could. And more politics surfaced during the weekend too. How come I never did come across such troubles during the last 2 years? LOL.
I'm seriously terrified about the exams, to tell the truth. Really trembling in my pants, as I never did before.
Life is so sad.
Right-o, a few photos, some old, some new. Took a dreadful chance today and bought 2 creatures that I'd never dream about getting under normal circumstances. But I'm stressed to the brink right now, and this is my version of risk-taking behavior in depression.
First up, make a guess - what creature is this?
Yep ... somebody shoot me. It is indeed a Pinnatus Batfish. One of those wonderful gems in the ocean - which really should have been left just there. Their survival record is dismal in captivity, and even readily-eating specimens somehow refuse food after a while. I'm just hoping that this guy will make it, he's such an absolute beauty! Reminds me of those Spanish skirts, since the fish doesn't dart around, but rather undulates slowly while hovering in mid-waters.
Trouble came sooner than I thought, though. The Henniochus Butterfly fish was somehow VERY nasty to it, and kept harrassing it. =( Notice the clownfish fleeing the scene, screaming, "FIGHT! FIGHT!". It wasn't a fight - the Butterfly was obviously being a big fat bully.
The other no-no that I bought today is this electric flame scallop. Sigh. Will my sins never be cleansed?!?? Once again, dismal survival records. Those surviving more than a year are rare. It's highly educational, however - I'll post a video up when I find time off to compress it. The mantle edges spark off consistently with a violent, electric blue fluorescence, which you can just make out in the photo (near the right side of the animal).
Now for some of the older animals in the tank that missed out on last week's limelight. First up is this lovely Frogspawn coral (Euphyllia sp.)
We also got 2 of these nice red sponges, in time for the festive season I guess. Sponges are, again, one of those frightfully-difficult creatures to keep alive in captivity, but my old yellow sponge has been growing well for almost 1 whole year (or more, I can't recall exactly) and I'm feeding copious amounts of frozen oyster eggs to the tank each week, so hopefully these will at least stand a chance. I did my utmost to ensure that they didn't get exposed to air while I was handling them, but it has passed through so many hands from the collectors to the wholesalers that I can't guarantee that these won't suffer from air embolism.
Blue waving Anthelia ... ahhhhh. One of my nemeses. I admit, this is my 4th attempt at this SUPPOSEDLY EASY animal. And yet, my previous 3 colonies disappeared without so much as a trace overnight.
And old Colt Coral .. one of those idiot-proof, beginner's corals that still find their way into the seasoned reefer's heart.
And finally, a shameless imitation of Acropora =) It's some kind of finger coral.
Other than these, I also got myself a fantastic specimen of a blue-throat triggerfish. You rarely get them at this size, usually the specimens are HUGE. Was totally spoilt for choice today regarding reef-safe triggerfish, there was a good selection of pink-tails, nigger triggers and black triggers. Obviously I can't afford a crossthatch trigger, but then again I've never seen one for sale before.
Ah, and there was that frogfish that "gave birth" - that'll merit another blog post altogether, and the footage is with YX, so another time perhaps!
There probably won't be any new additions to the tank for a long time to come, since there's a very real chance that I'll be setting up a brand new tank at the end of the year. Most likely only those specimens that I'm hard-pressed to give up on, but those are usually so $$$ that this situation probably won't happen. Dad was dropping sinister hints just now, exclaiming that it'll be difficult logistically to move this tank to its new location. Hmm. Perhaps I should tell him the truth. That this tank ain't going anywhere, I'll simply be getting a NEW ONE. =)
OK, this is going to be so odd, but apparently we're going to have a tutorial today - at a groupmate's house. Totally unconventional, and I can't help thinking it's a hoax of some kind.
Going quite, quite, quite mad from rushing all the studying. I can't finish, even though I started some 3 months ago! And the information's leaking out as quickly from my crazy brain as if I had bovine spongiform encephalitis. Even entertained wild fantasies of inserting SD cards filled with information into my head. What an easy way out.
Anyway, here's a pic of my desktop, it's a program called OS X Planet (there's another similar one, Earthdesk, but I find the former much more interesting). It updates these satellite images every 5 minutes with cloud, volcano, storm and earthquake info every 3 hours. I especially like the view at night, since it shows the lights of cities as well - a stark reminder of our urban sprawl.
And guess what the desktop picked up 2 days ago? Cyclone Dora! Sorry about the small pic, it's the whirl of clouds that you see. The storm kinda broke up today, but it was nice a couple of days ago.
Decided to post up some photos amidst flipping through dermatology. These are what my tank's really about!
Most of these creatures appeared spontaneously in the tank, and it's always been a pleasure just scrutinising the live rocks to see if I can find any more of these overlooked gems.
Cyanobacteria (the dark, maroon-purplish thing that looks like a stick)
Bubble algae hidden amist these clove polyps - those will be the green marble-looking things.
Growing end of these clove polyps
Sponges and Things - translucent sponge peeping out from amidst my 2nd colony of clove polyps. And there's more! The bright orange object on the bottom left corner's a sponge too.
Absolutely beautiful song, and a thoughtful MTV to match - well done again, FFF! I guess it's so apt, now that the Doomsday Clock has been set to 5 minutes to midnight.
"Got a package full of wishes A time machine, a magic wand A globe made out of gold
No instructions or commandments laws of gravity or indecisions to uphold
Printed on the box I see A.C.M.E.'s Build-a-World-to-be Take a chance - grab a piece Help me to believe it
What kind of world do you want? Think Anything Let's start at the start Build a masterpiece Be careful what you wish for History starts now"
If you missed the run, you NEED to get the DVD! Don't be fooled by the very fairy tale-ish facade of the show, it's more real than a lot of "real" shows I've watched. And the show's in Espanol. =p I'm going to try and get my hands on the soundtrack, it's worth it. The entire soundtrack can be heard on its official site, HERE.
The ending was so unconventional. It left me thinking whether the entire thing was truly real, a fairy encounter, or just the overactive imagination of a little girl. I'm quite leaning towards the latter though, but that made the movie horribly, horribly sad - what kind of real-world horrors would a child have to go through to spin such intricate and frightful webs of escapism?
My only gripes are threefold:
1. The stupid toad thing. It was quite ridiculous, why did the toad have to eat the bugs she gave it, when it had plenty around?
2. The stupid grape thing. That was just plain stupid. The girl wasn't starving, that's for sure.
3. The ending song, Mercedes' lullaby (Nana del laberinto del fauno) - the haunting tune and final scene got stuck in my head for days.
