Sunday 17 September 2006

While You Were Sleeping.....

...I was the poor shmuck who stayed awake in the wee hours of the morning, trying to make sense of the developing heart of an embryo.

I have, in the past two weeks or so, been tied up with so many commitments. So much so that I had a vague feeling of similarity to mynn, who, if you recall, also has had his hands full trying to meet the needs of all his demanding wives. My sympathies for the poor fellow.

First of all there were the mid-semester tests. Funnily enough, this time around, they weren't held on succesive days. Instead I had Biochemistry on a Tuesday, Physiology on a Thursday, Anatomy on another Tuesday the following week and Embryology just last Friday. It's enough to make anyone run out of the room whilst clawing at their own skin, screaming "No more! No more!"

I'm sorry. My imagination ran wild back there.

Other than that, I was also involved in the Inter-Medical School Physiology Quiz which was held on the 9th of September in Universiti Malaya. The majority of local IPTAs and private medical colleges took part with overseas guest from Taiwan, Hong Kong and our ever beloved neighbour Singapore also joining in the party.

I can tell you, on the actual quiz day itself, the intellectual atmosphere was so intense that if President Bush had walked in, I think he'd have collapsed from the very pressure of trying to comprehend what the participants were talking about. I am luckily, no President Bush, and understood most of the terms used.

To be completely honest with you, I'm not at all satisfied with the fact that our journey ended at the first round. What makes me even more angry is the fact that we lost because of unequal degree of questions. Imagine, we couldn't answer our own questions, but when it came to the questions of other groups, we could give the correct answer without blinking so much of an eye. Not one to be blowing my own trumpet, I hasten to point out that when I said 'we', what I meant was my other team members. However, our Physiology lecturer was quick to console our forelorn hearts by saying "We can always participate next year. By that time, we'll be better than this year".

So there. Two events which have caused me considerable insomnia for the past two weeks. If you excuse me, I think I'll take a catnap now. Yawn~

34 comments:

Anonymous said...

Before I rant further, I loved watching the movie with the same title as your entry starring Sandra Bullock. Speaking of which, has anyone watched The Lake House? Beautiful!

Emrbyology! Arghhh!...people who dont study medicine dont know how lucky they are for escaping the torture of memorizing the itty gritty cellular development in embryology!! I think the worst for me is embryolgy of the abdominal organs!! Arrrghh!....setiap kali ku kenang, pahit betul rasa!

Yoshi-Moshi- you have insulted Mr B***. I didnt know it was that easy to make him collapse? An idea for the A* *****, hehe

Mama Pongkey said...

Hehe kawe yang tak study medicine pun pening kepala menghafal tu dulu... thank goodness no more!

So Yoshi, sapa menang?

Anonymous said...

My own sleeping hours are also way off now.. macam kelawar pun bukan rasanya.

Anyway, let me just echo your lecturer: There's always next time :)

pycnogenol said...

I'm writing this comment against the backdrop of beautiful Andy Williams songs from a compilation of timeless tunes compiled by my eldest son and presented to me on my last birthday....beautiful....simply beautiful.....

The Moon River song is making me drowsy and dreamy though, and you Yoshi, talking of catnap and yawning away is not really helping.

I'll leave my comments later. I'll go for a catnap for now....;)

Jamil said...

DITH

Is The Lake House any good? I only know that it's a story about two people who live in the same house, seperated by time and communicate with each other by means of letters. I get my info through reading newspaper reviews. Pathetic, isn't it?

Embryo - the one subject to rule them all. At least until patho, microbio and pharmaco come along.

KKL

In the end, UM won - for the 3rd consecutive year. I have a funny feeling that those people in UM just made up the competiton to give themselves a trophy while looking good at it.

Hoping somebody else will win it next year...

Crimsonskye

I suppose it's all part and parcel of being a student, the disrupted cycles of sleep. Just enjoy it while it's there. By the time we get back to our usual sleeping patterns, we'd have kids already.

pycnogenol

You must really be enjoying those songs. I can feel the misty eyed romance in your writing.

Hope you have a nice catnap :)

Anonymous said...

Hiyoshi, where did you get this name from, I wonder?

The other hiyoshi i know is the muscular pak cik in PS2.

Anyway, if it was my imagination - I would have said - I won the Quiz. And I was the best contender winning the special Quiz Master title.

and they live happily ever after. (Errr?)

pycnogenol said...

Yes, I've watched both 'While You were Sleeping' and 'The Lake House' and I love them both. And Yoshi, it's NOT pathetic. I saw 'The Lake House' in Bangkok and it was such a beautiful movie, made all the more interesting by the ambience of Cinema...nothing like I've ever experienced in ANY of our cinemas. I was just immersed and lost into time and space watching that movie. Simply magical.....and so,so sad.

The ending? I'm not going to tell you.

Ask Tabibah fi al-bait. ;)

Anonymous said...

For the record to those of you who don't know me, I'm only married to one human being! my other wives are inanim----- i better not finish that sentence.

in other words, what hiyoshi means is my hobbies/interests are my "wives" as they require so much attention frm yours truly.

consolations for not winning the bush-wiping quiz hiyoshi! WHO distributed the questions??? soal siasat cepat!

tabibah fi al bait <-- like it a lot.

OMG, you guys are such romantics! romantikus!! my puke bucket filled twice over watching while you were sleeping ... um, but which one is lake house? lake placid i know lah.

ps
embryology!!!!!!!! <- i'm getting PTSD just hearing about the subject.

Anonymous said...

Eh Mynn yang tak berati perut! hehe...and that came from someone who loves watching animated movies and even cried watching them! :ppppp

Jamil said...

mama sarah

Actually, I've totally forgotten where I got the name. But I think it's one of the characters from Samurai X. Try asking mynn. He should know better.

pycnogenol

When I mentioned the word 'pathetic' I was, in fact, refering to my habit of reading reviews rather than watching the actual movies themselves. If you're a movie go-er, then I'm a review read-er.

mynn

"my other wives are inanim----- " ---> inanime?

The questions were made up by UM lecturers themselves, with a little help from USM (I think).

Lake Placid? Sounds like a place you wouldn't want to have a family vacation (rhymes with acid)

DITH

Really? REALLY??!! *eyes popping out at mynn*

Anonymous said...

dith
re:mynn's bucketful of puke

hahahahaha...

Anonymous said...

embryology? ok apa.... interesting apa! ... kan dalam quran ada sebut tentang embryology dalam enam masa. tak tau fetal development, macam mana nak tau bila nak scan orang mengandung, what to look for, untuk dates nak GS ke?CRL ke? BPD ke? FL ke? macam mana nak tau spene tu normal ke? ada spina bifida ke? macam mana nak tau bila dah boleh nampak testes untuk gender... testes dok kat mana at that particular gestation. interesting apa? ;)

Mama Pongkey said...

Bukanlah embryology tak interesting,
Tapi bikin kepala jadi pening.

Anonymous said...

I echo ikelah- I quite like embryology ;) It's amazing to learn about foetal development, and how the descriptions in the Quran totally fit in with the medical ones.

Best eh Lake House.. post dvd, mak! ngehehe..

Anonymous said...

Nisak-

Re: Mynn's puke

hehe back!

KKL- ikelah is pulling our legs! He too finds embryology 'intriguingly' hard to digest!!!

Sofi- wait till you reach the digestive system! Post Lake House eh? ngehehe

Anonymous said...

To add in another bucket of Mynn's puke.

I too love watching Walk In The Clouds. Notice that both movies starred Keannu Reeves? hehe. So you see, even when the hero is rather stiff in acting and better off as an action hero like The Matrix, he still can melt our hearts!

So Mynn, you need another bucket?? :ppp

puke, puke, puke

Anonymous said...

dith
soon from buckets filled with puke it'd be buckets full of c. diff diarrhoea! oh god, come one guys! walk in the clouds??????????

regarding crying watching anime. 1. heyyyy, where did you get that info from??? 2. they were tears of laughter lah... animes most times are extremely funny. :p

LOL re: ikelah finds embryology "interestingly" difficult! haha.....

hiyoshi
you know what dude, i also tend to read reviews more than go to watch the movies nowadays........ hu.

ps. lake house best ke? someone do a review please. would like to try and watch it if it's good.

a good movie i recommend is March of the Penguins. Watching this movie, I really marvelled at Allah's creation. The penguins are so cute & clever. seriously watch this movie, would be enjoyed by little ones & big ones alike.

Anonymous said...

ps

URGH walk in the clouds?!?!

*bleurghthghg*

Anonymous said...

Arghh...I can smell the stench already!!

puke, puke,puke

Anonymous said...

walk in the clouds == head in the clouds

Jamil said...

ikelah

I hope by the time I reach your age, I'll be able to look back and say the same thing about the subject! In the meantime, I'm just happy to be loathing it.

Sofi

It really is amazing to see that the Quran has perfectly described in detail the creation of humans centuries before modern science came about.

Still...I can't help but feel dreary whenever the lecturer asks from which aortic arch does the common carotid artery come from

Just to echo DITH, trying to figure out how the gastrointestinal tract twists and turns is also quite a chore!

mynn

Maybe you should start investing in a big, big container. You know...just so that the puke doesn't spill out and cause an environmental catastrophe...

Ikelah said...

i prefer to rerun 24 season 1-5, waiting for 6.

Anonymous said...

*ada orang tu kan sebelum ni kata WITC tu fave movie dia. Dia khatam banyak kali jugak la*

ifos said...

Hahaha, abah, I haven't finished watching 24. Saje tgk slow2, nanti next year takde bende nk tgk plak. Hehe.

ayumi said...

Salaam..
LOL to the Bush joke.. Hahaha.. That got me laughing in the computer lab.

I can feel the heat of insomnia even though I just started medical school for about 3 weeks. There's just so many things to remember. But alhamdulillah, with revisions and help from the lecturers, so far so good :) My mentor always tell me: "relax.. get enough sleep.. don't be tense.. relax.. relax.. relax.." Hehehe..

Better luck for the quiz next time!

Anonymous said...

Sorry for barging in someone else's blog like this but I can't help but to leave a comment when reading the comments above :D Let me just introduce myself as a friend of both Mama Sarah and Mynn.

So what is it in the topic that made me feel oblige to comment? Well that's the Lake House movie starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock. I've watched it and like it (not bad). Then I found out that the movie is adapted from a Korean movie filmed in 2000 called Il Mare. Yes Mynn, I can see you rolling your eyes now. I downloaded the original film and watched it. And I must say, I love the Korean version more than the Hollywood one. I may be bias but I am not :D Among other things the OST of Il Mare is just beautiful. If you love classical songs than you will love Il Mare.

I should stop here. Sorry hiyoshi for spamming your comment box ;)

dith said...

Naja,

I trust your taste and believe the Korean version is better and willing to watch it anytime, :p. Are you in Kuantan now and do you have the CD? hehe

Mama Sarah said...

naja and her korrywood... isykh3x

Anonymous said...

dith:
I love the first line "I trust your taste" :D

As much as I want you and everyone else to watch the film, unfortunately I've already deleted the movie from my hard disc. And I don't have the CD :(

May I suggest viewing it from Youtube with English subtitle? But please do not buy the CD if the subtitle is in Malay because (99% of the time) the subtitle leaves a lot to be desired.

Ye, kawe di Kuantan ;)

ms:
nok buat macamane weh, kawe memang macam gini.

hiyoshi:
sorry again

pycnogenol said...

When ladies start talking about Korean dramas, I get so, SO worried.

Ikelah, be prepared to have your 'berbuka' and 'bersahur' with just Aliya and Maman. Your Tabibah may just be too busy finishing 'just a bit more of a particular episode'.....:(

And...I'm talking from experience here... :(

dith said...

Pycno- dont worry, I dont do series..:p

Actually I am not into Korean, Japanese or Chinese movies either!

Jamil said...

sofi

You watch 24 too? That's cool.

ayumi

Hello there traveller! How are things over there? Yes, insomnia is part of the course. Perhaps next time they should include another subject in the syllabus - Sleep Management.

Naja

Welcome! By all means, do make yourself at home. It's so nice to have visitors; especially those who have something to say *wink*wink*

Don't worry about the spamming. It adds colour to the comment box :)

DITH

You know, if my mom ever blogged, she'd have a ball of a time talking about serial dramas. You'd be amazed at the amount of knowledge she has about these dramas :P

mama sarah

LOL at Korrywood.

pycnogenol

I get worried too. In my class, I get worried when they (my female cllasmates) start talking about the latest issue of Remaja

(Of course, women get worried when men start talking about DSLRs - no offence mynn!!!)

Anonymous said...

Hiyoshi:

Thank you for the warm welcome. Yes, I do have a lot to say about the Korrywood. Does you mother do Korean dramas? ;)

Pycno:

I wish I can say 'no pycno, you got it wrong there' but I can't. It is so very true. 'Just a bit more of a particular episode' LOL

Dith:

I'm glad that you don't do Korean series. Such a lot of time and money wasted *telling myself actually*

ifos said...

Hiyoshi, I recommend 24 to every living human. hehe... kan abah?? <-- he got me hooked in the first place. btw abah, my fave season is still day 4, dunno if that will change after I finished day 5. too many unwarranted deaths =(