Med Students

Stereotypes

Personality Test

Disorder	Rating
Paranoid Personality Disorder:	High
Schizoid Personality Disorder:	High
Schizotypal Personality Disorder:	High
Antisocial Personality Disorder:	High
Borderline Personality Disorder:	Low
Histrionic Personality Disorder:	High
Narcissistic Personality Disorder:	Very High
Avoidant Personality Disorder:	High
Dependent Personality Disorder:	High
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder:	High
-- Take the Personality Disorder Test -- -- Personality Disorder Info --

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Woah

P.S. The first time I took this test, I was Schizotypal and Obsessive-Compulsive. See, this is what happens when you eat KFC for dinner.
P.S.S Wohoo! I'm finally antisocial!

RPG cliches

2. "No! My beloved peasant village!"
The hero's home town, city, slum, or planet will usually be annihilated in a spectacular fashion before the end of the game, and often before the end of the opening scene.

5. Logan's Run Rule
RPG characters are young. Very young. The average age seems to be 15, unless the character is a decorated and battle-hardened soldier, in which case he might even be as old as 18. Such teenagers often have skills with multiple weapons and magic, years of experience, and never ever worry about their parents telling them to come home from adventuring before bedtime. By contrast, characters more than twenty-two years old will cheerfully refer to themselves as washed-up old fogies and be eager to make room for the younger generation.

8. Nominal Rule
Any character who actually has a name is important in some way and must be sought out. However, if you are referred to as a part of a posessive noun ("Crono's Mom") then you are superfluous.

11. Let's Start From The Very Beginning (Yuna Rule)
Whenever there is a sequel to an RPG that features the same main character as the previous game, that character will always start with beginner skills. Everything that they learned in the previous game will be gone, as will all their ultra-powerful weapons and equipment.

13. The Higher The Hair, The Closer To God (Cloud Rule)
The more outrageous his hairstyle, the more important a male character is to the story.

14. Garrett's Principle
Let's not mince words: you're a thief. You can walk into just about anybody's house like the door wasn't even locked. You just barge right in and start looking for stuff. Anything you can find that's not nailed down is yours to keep. You will often walk into perfect strangers' houses, lift their precious artifacts, and then chat with them like you were old neighbors as you head back out with their family heirlooms under your arm. Unfortunately, this never works in stores.

19. "Silly Squall, bringing a sword to a gunfight..."
No matter what timeframe the game is set in -- past, present, or future -- the main hero and his antagonist will both use a sword for a weapon. (Therefore, you can identify your antagonist pretty easily right from the start of the game just by looking for the other guy who uses a sword.) These swords will be far more powerful than any gun and often capable of distance attacks.

22. MacGyver Rule
Other than for the protagonists, your choice of weapons is not limited to the prosaic guns, clubs, or swords. Given appropriate skills, you can cut a bloody swath across the continent using gloves, combs, umbrellas, megaphones, dictionaries, sketching tablets -- you name it, you can kill with it. Even better, no matter how surreal your choice of armament, every store you pass will just happen to stock an even better model of it for a very reasonable price. Who else is running around the world killing people with an umbrella?

26. Local Control Rule
Although the boss monster terrorizing the first city in the game is less powerful than the non-boss monsters that are only casual nuisances to cities later in the game, nobody from the first city ever thinks of hiring a few mercenaries from the later cities to kill the monster.

30. Selective Paralysis
Your characters must always keep both feet on the ground and will be unable to climb over low rock ledges, railings, chairs, cats, slightly differently-colored ground, or any other trivial objects which may happen to be in their way. Note that this condition will not prevent your characters from jumping from railroad car to railroad car later in the game.

31. Bed Bed Bed
A good night's sleep will cure all wounds, diseases, and disabilities, up to and including death in battle.

34. Zap!
Most villains in RPGs possess some form of teleportation. They generally use it to materialize in front of the adventurers when they reach the Obligatory Legendary Relic Room and seize the goodies just before you can. The question "if the bad guy can teleport anywhere at any time, then why doesn't (s)he just zip in, grab the artifact, and leave before the adventurers have even finished the nerve-wracking puzzle on the third floor?" is never answered.

35. Heads I Win, Tails You Lose (Grahf Rule)
It doesn't matter that you won the fight with the boss monster; the evil task he was trying to carry out will still get accomplished somehow. Really, you might as well not have bothered.

50. Short Attention Span Principle
All bookshelves contain exactly one book, which only has enough text on it to fill up half a page.

58. But They Don't Take American Express
Every merchant in the world -- even those living in far-off villages or hidden floating cities cut off from the outside world for centuries, even those who speak different languages or are of an entirely different species -- accepts the same currency.

61. Henchman Quota (Nana, Saki, and Mio Rule)
One of your antagonists will have three lovably incompetent stooges whom you fight over and over again. Although they're trusted with their boss's most important plans and equipment, they will screw up repeatedly, argue incessantly among themselves, blab secret information, and generally only come out victorious when their job was to be a diversion or a delaying tactic. A high point of the game will come when the True Villain reveals himself and you're able to convince the stooges you're all on the same side. They won't help you out any more successfully than they helped the antagonist, but at least you won't have to fight them any more.

62. Thousand Year Rule
The Ancient Evil returns to savage the land every thousand years on the dot, and the last time it showed up was just about 999.9875 years ago. Despite their best efforts, heroes of the past were never able to do more than seal the Evil away again for the future to deal with (which brings up the question of just how exactly does this "sealing away" work anyway, but never mind.) The good news is that this time, the Evil will get destroyed permanently. The bad news is that you're the one who's going to have to do it.

70. Sixth Law of Travel
Nobody gets to own a cooler ride than you. If you ever do see a cooler vehicle than the one you've got now, at some point before the end of the game you will either take over this vehicle, get something even bigger and better, or else see it destroyed in a glorious blaze.

74. If You Meet The Buddha In A Random Encounter, Kill Him!
When you're out wandering around the world, you must kill everything you meet. People, animals, plants, insects, fire hydrants, small cottages, anything and everything is just plain out to get you. It may be because of your rampant kleptomania (see Garrett's Principle.)

80. Friendly Fire Principle (or, Final Fantasy Tactics Rule)
Any attack that can target both allies and enemies will hit half of your allies and none of your enemies.

86. Wait! That Was A Load-Bearing Boss!
Defeating a dungeon's boss creature will frequently cause the dungeon to collapse, which is nonsensical but does make for thrilling escape scenes.

87. Supply and Demand Axiom
Killing a powerful enemy will usually yield an item or weapon that would've been extremely useful if you had gotten it before killing that enemy.

98. Experience Not Required
When the main character is forced to do some complex or dangerous task for the first time, even though he has never done it before he will still always be better than the oldest veteran.

101. Law of Productive Gullibility (Ruby Rule)
Whenever anybody comes up to you with a patently ludicrous claim (such as, "I'm not a cat, I'm really an ancient Red Dragon") there's an at least two-thirds chance they're telling the truth. Therefore, it pays to humor everyone you meet; odds are you'll be glad you did later on.

102. Perversity Principle
If you're unsure about what to do next, ask all the townspeople nearby. They will either all strongly urge you to do something, in which case you must immediately go out and do that thing, or else they will all strongly warn you against doing something, in which case you must immediately go out and do that thing.

103. Near-Death Epiphany (Fei Rule)
If the party is not dealing damage to a boss character, then there's a better-than-even chance that someone in the party will suddenly become enlightened and instantly acquire the offensive skill that can blow the creature away in a matter of seconds.

106. Law of Traps
No matter how obvious the trap, you can't complete the game unless you fall into it.

111. Principle of Archaeological Convenience
Every ancient machine you find will work perfectly the first time you try to use it and every time thereafter. Even if its city got blasted into ruins and the machine was then sunk to the bottom of the sea and buried in mud for ten thousand years, it'll still work fine. The unfortunate corollary to this rule is that ancient guardian creatures will also turn out to be working perfectly when you try to filch their stuff.

112. They Don't Make 'Em Like They Used To (Cid Rule)
Modern-day machinery, by contrast, will always break down at the worst possible moment (for example, when you only need one more shot from the giant cannon to defeat the final boss.)

113. Place Transvestite Joke Here (Miss Cloud Rule)
If the male lead is required to dress up like a girl for any reason, he will be regarded by everyone as much more attractive than any "real" girl. If the female lead cross-dresses as a man, she will be immediately recognized as who she is by everyone except the male lead and the main villain.

119. Don't Stand Out
Any townsperson who is dressed oddly or otherwise doesn't fit in with the rest of the townsfolk will either:

1. Join your party after you complete some task,
2. Be in the employ of your enemy, or
3. Befriend any female member of the party, and then be immediately captured and held hostage by the villains.
   
4. 
   

120. Little Nemo Law
If any sleeping character has a dream, that dream will be either a 100% accurate memory of the past, a 100% accurate psychic sending from the present, a 100% accurate prophetic vision of the future, or a combination of two or all three of these.

121. Child Protection Act (Rydia Rule)
Children 12 and under are exempt from death. They will emerge alive from cataclysms that slaughter hundreds of sturdily-built adults, often with barely a scratch. Further protection is afforded if the catastrophe will orphan the child.

126. Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely (Althena Rule)
If a good guy is manipulated to the side of evil, they will suddenly find a new inner strength that will enable them to wipe out your whole party with a wave of their hand.

138. Well, So Much For That
After you have completed your mighty quest to find the object that will save the known universe, it will either a) get lost, b) get stolen, or c) not work.

142. Thank You For Pressing The Self-Destruct Button
All enemy installations and city-sized military vehicles will be equipped with a conveniently located, easy-to-operate self-destruct mechanism.

143. Falling Rule
An RPG character can fall any distance onto anything without suffering anything worse than brief unconsciousness. In fact, falling a huge distance is an excellent cure for otherwise fatal wounds -- anyone who you see shot, stabbed, or mangled and then tossed off a cliff is guaranteed to return later in the game with barely a scratch.

148. Gender Equality, Part 1 (Feena Rule)
Your average female RPG character carries a variety of deadly weapons and can effortlessly hack or magic her way through armies of monsters, killer cyborgs, and mutated boss creatures without breaking a sweat. She may be an accomplished ninja, a superpowered secret agent, or the world's greatest adventurer. However, if one of the game's villains manages to sneak up and grab her by the Standard Female Character Grab Area (her upper arm) she will be rendered utterly helpless until rescued by the hero.

154. Gold Saucer Rule
The strongest weapons/items/spells in the entire game can only be found by doing things like racing birds.

155. Evil May Live Forever, But It Doesn't Age Well
Even though it took the greatest armies in the world and all of the world's greatest magicians to seal away an ancient evil in an apocalyptic war, once said ancient evil breaks free three fairly inexperienced warriors can destroy it.

168. Way To Go, Serge
It will eventually turn out that, for a minimum of the first sixty percent of the game, you were actually being manipulated by the forces of evil into doing their sinister bidding for them. In extreme cases this may go as high as 90%. The clear implication is that it would have been better to not get involved in the first place.

171. World of Mild Inconvenience
The devastating plague, noxious gas, planet-obliterating meteor or other large-scale disaster that led to the death of millions will affect your party (and your party's friends and family members) in no way whatsoever, save that a few party members may become lost and you can find them later.

176. "Evil will always triumph, because Good is dumb!"
If the villain needs all ten legendary medallions to attain world domination and you have nine of them, everybody in your party still thinks it is necessary to bring the nine to the villain's castle and get the final one, instead of hiding the ones they've already got and spoiling his plans that way. After you foolishly bring the legendary medallions to the villain's hideout, he will kidnap one of your companions (usually the main love interest) and you will trade the world away to rescue your friend.

183. Adam Smith's Revenge
By the end of the game you are renowned everywhere as the Legendary Heroes, every surviving government and authority figure has rallied behind you, the fate of the world is obviously hanging in the balance, and out of nowhere random passers-by give you a pat on the back and heartfelt good luck wishes. However, shopkeepers won't even give you a discount, much less free supplies for the final battle with evil.

189. The Moral Of The Story (Ghaleon Rule)
Every problem in the universe can be solved by finding the right long-haired prettyboy and beating the crap out of him.

more here.

Interesting toys...

Found this in the Herald Sun (27 August 2008)


USB Golf Mouse
Product Code: UMOUS003700
-----------------------------------------------------------
This USB Golf Mouse looks like a golf ball. It comes with Golf Course decor kit. Get this Golf Mouse to decorate your desk up for the joyful occasion



USB Wireless Missile Launcher
Product Code: ULIFE013700
-------------------------------------------------------------
Looking for something to just play a trick on your colleagues? We've got you this USB Wireless Missile Launcher. It surely brings you fun in your workplace.

Aim it! Shoot! With the wireless feature, this Missile Launcher can be remotely controlled 15 feets away. Get one and shoot your colleague in front of you.

These and other odd gadgets/toys can be found in this online store

Portable Electronic Book?

IMAGINE cramming 113 books into your carry-on holiday luggage.

It's a task that is not only impractical, but one likely to upset your fellow travellers.

That is unless you take the hi-tech option and cram those weighty tomes on to a lightweight e-book reader.

These slim and sophisticated gadgets can store text from thousands of books in the same space as a novella, and boast a screen that looks like paper.

But electronic books are not confined to these innovative gadgets. Computer screens and even iPhones are being turned into e-book readers, making an old technology new again.

And, according to market analysts and e-book sellers, the trend is picking up steam.

Leading technology analyst Mark Mahaney, from Citibank, recently dubbed Amazon's Kindle e-book reader "the iPod of the book world", predicting Amazon would sell more than 378,000 of the gadgets by the end of the year – double his original prediction.

Sony also is poised to launch its latest Portable Reader System outside America next month, and Lexcycle this month launched Stanza, an e-book application for the iPhone and iPod Touch that gives users free access to classic novels such as Great Expectations.

read more here

read CNET review of Sony PRS-500 Portable Reader System here

.... now that's cool.

Star Ocean 4

Yes, yes, YES! Finally, another sci-fi RPG game! Does remind me of Star Trek: Enterprise - suppose to be a few centuries before the rest of the Star Ocean series.

"AD 2064. Humanity made its third and most costly mistake. World War III. Weapons of mass destruction deployed with impunity, razed the land in the blink of an eye. People believed it's the end of the world. The planet Earth was dying. So humanity began to search for a new home in space."

"AD 2074 first contact. SD0001 first warp. SD0010 -- first official SRF mission. The first official SRF mission ventures forth into the great Star Ocean."

Just don't crash into another planet. Just don't make me spend 3/4 of the game running around in an undeveloped fantasy-like planet with no modern technology a la Star Ocean 3. I insist on at least some modern gadget fun - hologram tricks, space ship battles, mecha/androids?

But one inny-pinny-tinny-winny problem... Exclusive for Xbox 360?!?!

To those left behind

For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun? And what is it to cease breathing but to free the breath from its restless tides, that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?

Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing. And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb. And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.

Extracted from 'The Prophet' by Khalil Gibran

A 'Frankenrobot' with a biological brain

Meet Gordon, probably the world's first robot controlled exclusively by living brain tissue.

Stitched together from cultured rat neurons, Gordon's primitive grey matter was designed at the University of Reading by scientists who unveiled the neuron-powered machine on Wednesday.

Their groundbreaking experiments explore the vanishing boundary between natural and artificial intelligence, and could shed light on the fundamental building blocks of memory and learning, one of the lead researchers told AFP.

"The purpose is to figure out how memories are actually stored in a biological brain," said Kevin Warwick, a professor at the University of Reading and one of the robot's principle architects.

Observing how the nerve cells cohere into a network as they fire off electrical impulses, he said, may also help scientists combat neurodegenerative diseases that attack the brain such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

"If we can understand some of the basics of what is going on in our little model brain, it could have enormous medical spinoffs," he said.

Looking a bit like the garbage-compacting hero of the blockbuster animation "Wall-E", Gordon has a brain composed of 50,000 to 100,000 active neurons.

Once removed from rat foetuses and disentangled from each other with an enzyme bath, the specialised nerve cells are laid out in a nutrient-rich medium across an eight-by-eight centimetre (five-by-five inch) array of 60 electrodes.

This "multi-electrode array" (MEA) serves as the interface between living tissue and machine, with the brain sending electrical impulses to drive the wheels of the robots, and receiving impulses delivered by sensors reacting to the environment.

Because the brain is living tissue, it must be housed in a special temperature-controlled unit -- it communicates with its "body" via a Bluetooth radio link.

The robot has no additional control from a human or computer.

From the very start, the neurons get busy. "Within about 24 hours, they start sending out feelers to each other and making connections," said Warwick.

"Within a week we get some spontaneous firings and brain-like activity" similar to what happens in a normal rat -- or human -- brain, he added.

But without external stimulation, the brain will wither and die within a couple of months.

"Now we are looking at how best to teach it to behave in certain ways," explained Warwick.

To some extent, Gordon learns by itself. When it hits a wall, for example, it gets an electrical stimulation from the robot's sensors. As it confronts similar situations, it learns by habit.

To help this process along, the researchers also use different chemicals to reinforce or inhibit the neural pathways that light up during particular actions.

Gordon, in fact, has multiple personalities -- several MEA "brains" that the scientists can dock into the robot.

"It's quite funny -- you get differences between the brains," said Warwick. "This one is a bit boisterous and active, while we know another is not going to do what we want it to."

Mainly for ethical reasons, it is unlikely that researchers at Reading or the handful of laboratories around the world exploring the same terrain will be using human neurons any time soon in the same kind of experiments.

But rats brain cells are not a bad stand-in: much of the difference between rodent and human intelligence, speculates Warwick, could be attributed to quantity not quality.

Rats brains are composed of about one million neurons, the specialised cells that relay information across the brain via chemicals called neurotransmitters.

Humans have 100 billion.

"This is a simplified version of what goes on in the human brain where we can look -- and control -- the basic features in the way that we want. In a human brain, you can't really do that," he said.

For colleague Ben Whalley, one of the fundamental questions facing scientists today is how to link the activity of individual neurons with the overwhelmingly complex behaviour of whole organisms.

"The project gives us a unique opportunity to look at something which may exhibit complex behaviours, but still remain closely tied to the activity of individual neurons," he said.

read the rest here.

Anime Lot (now that's a lot)

Just for fun, I've decided to list down all the animes I've watched up to now:

See list here.

All in the last 5 1/2 years.
Ummmmmm wow?

Edit: Oh yeah - for fun, I tag all you visitors ;P . Go forth and write your own list (feel the otakuness in you)

Lucia's Theme (Lunar 2 Eternal Blue)

When I was alone as one,
my eyes were as blind, I know.
Sky brilliant with blue elegance,
I couldn't behold.

When I was alone as one,
My heart was as ice, so cold.
Wind whispering sweet melodies,
I could not behold.

Sight to my eyes,
and warmth to my heart,
Your love has been such to me.

Pull closer now,
And strengthen my leaning,
Toward love to heal all my wounds.

When our hearts both beat in time,
There's magic in your smile,
It seems there's nothing we can't do.

And within your warm embrace,
My heart will find a place,
Even from afar,
Our love forever shall be destiny.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It felt like a lifetime ago since I've completed this game.

19 weeks gestation

The day before Christmas eve, we went in for our 18 week scan - it was our third scan of the pregnancy and we were excited to be seeing our much longed for baby again. But five minutes into the scan it became obvious that something was wrong. There was our baby, wriggling and kicking away like a champion as usual, but something didn't look right. We were told that day that our baby had encephaly. It's brain had developed partially outside of it's skull. A form of spina bifida, they said. Had you been taking folate, they said? Of course I had. Very rare then, apparently. We were told the long and short of it was that we would lose our baby. Encephaly is always fatal. We had a decision to make - go full term and hope for a few precious minutes, or be induced. It was recommended we be induced as our baby's heart rate had dropped to 90 beats per minute.

On the Friday after christmas, we arrived at the hospital. They administered the first dose of drugs for inducement at 5pm. Throughout Friday, Saturday and Sunday, I felt no movement. On Sunday, the 29th of December, at 4.15 pm, Brann Phoenix McGrath was born. The name Brann is gaelic for "spirit of eternal youth". He was handed straight to his mum, and he was beautiful, perfect and very still. 10 seconds later, despite a fatal illness, despite having been through two days of contractions and drugs, despite having a low heartbeat, and despite having been born at 19 weeks, and definitely against all odds, he reached up a tiny little hand, and kicked out his feet. For a precious 15 minutes, his mum and dad got to hold him and watched while he amazed them and the nurses with his sheer strength and determination until he just seemed to get tired and stop.

He had his daddys huge hands and feet, and his daddys length - he was going to be very tall! And he had his mummy's long fingers and toes. He was, and is, loved out of this world.

read more here

Wind's Nocturne (Lunar PS1)

Wishing on a dream that seems far off
Hoping it will come today.

Into the starlit night,
Foolish dreamers turn their gaze,
Waiting on a shooting star.

But, what if that star is not to come?
Will their dreams fade to nothing?
When the horizon darkens most,
We all need to believe there is hope.

Is an angel watching closely over me?
Can there be a guiding light I've yet to see?
I know my heart should guide me, but,
There's a hole within my soul.

What will fill this emptiness inside of me?
Am I to be satisfied without knowing?

I wish, then, for a chance to see,
Now all I need, (desperately)

Is my star to come...

P.S. Author of the flash video wished to express that 'no, that cat did not die from the cold'.
P.S.S. Librarian wondered if there were known (or unknown?) asian delicacies involving cats.

Procrastination = Online Shopping

KINGDOM HEARTS PLAY ARTS ARMS

Five keyblades from KINGDOM HEARTS & KINGDOM HEARTS II:
Wishing Lamp, Oblivion, Oathkeeper, Ultima Weapon (KINGDOM HEARTS I Ver.）& Ultima Weapon (KINGDOM HEARTS II Ver.）

Material : ATBC-PVC, ABS
Specification : Blister boxed

Price : US$34.99

FINAL FANTASY PLAY ARTS ARMS

Five weapons from FINAL FANTASY VIII and FINAL FANTASY X:

Squall’s “Lion Heart,” Selphie’s “Strange Vision,” Tidus’s “Caladbolg,” Yuna’s “Nirvana” and Auron’s “Masamune.”

Material : ATBC-PVC, ABS
Specification : Blister boxed

Price : US$29.99

Weapons! Weapons! So... cool!!!!

KINGDOM HEARTS II PLAY ARTS

Sora from "KINGDOM HEARTS II" has been brought to life as highly articulated action figures that can be posed and equipped in a variety of ways.

Equipment: 1Key Blade (Kingdom Key)

Material : PVC
Size : Height / 7.09 inches
Specification : Blister boxed

Price : US$24.99

Weapon carrier. And fine, looks alright too.

FINAL FANTASY XII PLAY ARTS JUDGE MAGISTER GABRANTH

Judge Magister Gabranth action figure, from FINAL FANTASY XII.

Weapons: Chaos Blade and Highway Star

Material : PVC
Size : Height / 9.25 inches
Specification : Blister boxed

Price : US$24.99

Love the weapons. And the armor. Did I forget to mention the weapons?

FINAL FANTASY VII PLAY ARTS CLOUD & HARDY DAYTONA

The hero of FINAL FANTASY VII together with his bike, Hardy Daytona, in one boxed set.

Material : Figure & Bike: ATBC-PVC, ABS, POM
Size : Figure Height approx. 7.5 inches / Bike Length approx. 12 inches
Specification : Blister boxed

Price : US$79.99

Drool-worthy bike and weapon.

All can be purchased at the Square Enix website. Delivery ONLY to US. Sigh.

Anyone know anyone in US?

Surfing through my pile of old photos...

... and I'm surprised that I forgot to put some of them up!

Lancelot from Code Geass. The only gundam-like figurine here to keep me company. Hmm a Gurren II or RPI-212 Vincent would be nice too... But man, when is Bandai ever going to make Lelouch's Knightmare?

Lancelot, bored at home, chasing after the Klingons. Lancelot, repeat after me. Bad Idea!

Be we-ry we-ry quiet. Eva is hunting Gundam!

Powered by Diet Coke (TM)

Haha. Such fun times. So tired now (pre-exams, sigh).

Current music: The sound of brain gears getting stuck.
Current mood: .....zzzz....
Current disorder: Fatigue, weight gain, loss of appetite, no fever, no change in bowel or waterworks...

I shall call him squishy, and he shall be mine, he shall be my squishy...

Anatomy of the vocal cords from youtube.

Greetings from the future!

It has come to my attention that there are suddenly many students (and wannabes) of the fine craft of Medicine that have accidentally fallen into this interdimensional hole fondly known as the L-space. And with them come cries and pleads for help in mastering the elusive mistresses of the science and art of Medicine.

Fear not! For your cries have been received. For this freshly graduated student of the art (yes, am praying very hard at the moment) has decided to compile a list of links, videos and the likes for the perusal of all who need aid (or are bored to death with nothing to do).

Just click this link and all shall be revealed. (and no, no R-rated stuff, except maybe PR examinations and the likes).

For those who used (or still) to follow Bleach

Young Byakuya. First reaction?
Bwahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

For those interested - currently Ichigo and co. are still trying to rescue Orihime, except that Aizen has brought all his underlings to destroy Karakura Town. And for some reason, the mangaka decides to do a very long (but amusing) flashback (see above picture *snigger*)

And Inuyasha's still in their final (?) battle with Naraku. Well, at least Naraku finally fused with the Shikon no Tama, so maybe something will happen... maybe.

Anyway, got to go back to studying. Got some pretty good anime this season - Code Geass R2, Nabari no Ou, xxxHolic Kei, Soul Eater - wahhhh better go study liao (so can watch later, mwahahaha).

Current music: Right here waiting
Current mood: *undecided over electives...*

How to pass Sem 8 and 9

Now, as the time for the internship exam creeps closer, students of the art search frantically for the legendary 'Flying Colors' that will aid in passing their exams. A few words of wisdom has been imparted to this insignificant one, who decided in view of her failing memory, to write below:

From Doctors

The Dean: Just know Kumar and Clark backward, forward and upside down and you'll be alright. (yes, all 1446 pages)

The Orthopaedic Surgeon: Don't worry, The Dean will make sure all of you know how to pass. Now, let's talk about something more practical, like how to describe a fracture on X-ray...

From the Registrars

Gen Surg: Just read Talley O'Connor 4 times. That's what I did. Didn't read anything else.

From the Interns

Intern: Didn't study anything, didn't do anything. I was quite happy when I got 67%. (please don't try this at home, kids.)

From the Seniors

Girl: Just relax. It's not that hard to pass!

Boy: What exam?

And so you have it. Words of wisdom from those who know best.



Excuse me while I scream into the pillow.

How Can I Handle the Pressure of Medical Training?

Question
I feel like my residents and attendings always expect more of me, which causes considerable stress. What can I do to reduce this constant feeling of pressure?

Response from Geoffrey Talmon, MD
Surgical Pathology Fellow, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota

As a third-year medical student, I was assigned to an obstetrics rotation off campus with a group of private physicians. They were notorious for pushing their medical students hard, and consequently I was dreading those 6 weeks. During the first half of the rotation, we were absolutely swamped. Every delivery room was always filled, and we always seemed to have a very long inpatient census to round on each morning. Added to this, it seemed as though I did nothing right. My attending would tear my notes to shreds as he critiqued them, I never seemed to answer any question correctly, and in surgery I was apparently incapable of holding a retractor. This was a level of pressure that I had never experienced before. I certainly did not talk about it; weren't medical students supposed to be able to deal with all of this with a smile on their face?

One night, I was in the doctor's lounge while on call, and my attending asked me how I was doing. I must have been really tired because I actually told him about all of my anxiety. He smiled and admitted that he tended to ride medical students hard, but he said that his expectations were simple: See your patients in the morning and write a note, participate in rounds, and show that you were reading about your patients. All of the other criticisms were in an attempt to make me improve and be more efficient. He said that I was at least meeting if not exceeding all of his expectations. After hearing this, the pressure that I felt while on service was reduced incredibly, and I actually enjoyed the rotation.

Handling pressure from superiors is a constant in life. From school to business to sports, it is something that everyone must find a way to deal with in order to succeed. It is one of the skills that employers often use to determine who is promoted and who cannot handle their current position. As such, a number of books, presentations, and symposia have been developed to provide advice on handling pressure.

Medicine is no exception. On top of the stress that comes with making decisions that affect patients' lives, perceived demands from residents and attendings create more anxiety. The hierarchy of academic medicine makes coping with these stressors even more complex. Attending physicians' diverse backgrounds engender numerous styles of teaching and interaction with subordinates, as well as differing levels of patience with student doctors. As a result, determining what is wanted of a trainee can seem like aiming at a moving target.

On top of all this, medical students often have high self-expectations and a desire to please. This can make handling pressure even more difficult. When I discussed high-pressure rotations with my friends during medical school, many of them would say things such as, "Well, at least it only lasts for a month." This thought offered little solace as I was often very concerned with my evaluation or the potential for a letter of recommendation. For those like me, how does one deal with pressure from more senior physicians?

To start, it is important to recognize that "pressure" does not equal abuse. The days are over when medical students had to put up with verbal abuse from supervising physicians. Even if an attending is glaringly upset with your performance, there is no excuse for name-calling, swearing, or insults. In such instances, nearly every medical school has mechanisms for reporting unacceptable behavior, often starting with the rotation director.

It is also important to determine the source of your pressure; is it coming from your superiors or from inside yourself? Almost all medical students are driven to overachieve, so we often set unrealistic standards. We feel that we need to answer every question correctly, present every patient perfectly, write the best clinic notes, etc. Whenever we fail at one of these self-imposed goals, we experience internal anxiety. Then, the more that is asked of us, the more pressure we feel. In hindsight, I realize that most of the time when I felt "under pressure" while on service, it was of my own making. Two nonthreatening ways to determine the source of your pressure is to ask other students who were on the rotation before you what the attending expected of them, or talk to your residents about your performance.

Similarly, you may be able to reduce the pressure from senior doctors if you know precisely what they want from you. Thinking back, some of the best attendings and experiences I had on service came when I was told at the very beginning of my rotation what my responsibilities were. I did not have to "guess" what I was supposed to be doing, which often removed a large amount of stress from my day-to-day activities. It is almost never incorrect to ask your supervisors this question, although it is advisable to have such discussions in private and at a less hectic time than during the middle of rounds or a surgery.

So, what should you do when there is true pressure from your supervisors to perform, either due to the volume of work or high expectations? Unfortunately, these situations are occasionally unavoidable, and they often occur as a student gains more responsibility (eg, a new fourth-year medical student or a new first-year resident). In most cases, the goal is to make you more efficient -- shorter notes, more focused histories and physical exams, and so on. Again, the key to handling these situations is talking with your senior physicians. Ask them for their assessment of your performance and for hints and/or advice on how to improve.

The overriding theme in all of these tactics is communication. When you, as the student doctor, feel that the weight of demands placed upon you by senior physicians is causing excessive anxiety, talk to them about it. Ask them what is expected of you, whether you are meeting those expectations, and what you could do to improve. Because the goal of academic medicine is to turn you into a better physician, such questions are not inappropriate, and they can help reduce the amount of stress and pressure that you are feeling.

Taken from here