Through Me Artwork

Cousin's friend forwarded over some quick sketches for Adel. He's amazingly talented and I think he's a pretty cool guy for indulging us so.

I believe cousin kept insisting for more Caucasian features so poor guy went through several drafts, playing around with things. He's awesome. My cousin, a slavedriver. :)







I have an exam next Friday on Abdomen and Perineum. And I have to submit a Personal Statement Monday. Writing's definitely going on the back burner these days.

Friends say that I declare "I'm going to fail!" too many times. Apparently, I've said it so many times that the other day while I was making small talk with a classmate of mine whom I've spoken to only three times or so before as we washed our dissection tools, he asked "Are you prepared for the exam?"

My answer was a rapid fire, "No! I'm gonna fail."

And he chuckled and was like, "That was fast."

"Yeah, you don't even need to ask."

He grinned. "Yeah, I remember you saying the same exact thing last year right before our miniboard."

"Huh?"

"Yeah, we were standing outside in the hall and I asked you about the exam and you were like ... I'm gonna fail!"

Ah. So that's my catchphrase people will know me by. Epitaph: I'M GONNA FAIL. RIP.

So I'll try to refrain but ... you know.



On another even sadder note, I managed to rack up the most horrifying credit card bill to date. I want to die from guilt. Fortunately, the money I got back for research fellowship work could still cover it.

It was a momentary insanity thing. Classmates were all planning for Spring Break vacations and they asked me to come along and somehow, it went from "I'll see" to "I got hooked into going to Cancun. Forgive me, wallet." It happened so fast, I'm still reeling.

For some reason, my class really wants to have fun this spring break. Nearly all of our class are going somewhere. Are these people aware of the bad economy??

Eight girls and 1 guy are going together to Jamaica. Professor doesn't know guy is gay so he's like "That should be illegal." (Scary tidbit: Jamaica's really anti-gay so everybody in our class are all hush-hush wary for the guy. A girl said Jamaica actually has store signs saying NO GAYS and all in all, we're all thinking "Does he not know about the situation there?" Someone's probably going to try to enlighten him soon, but he's a really confident guy and a few girls in their group have discussed that maybe no one would know he's gay and they could just ... pretend. That, or they're going to get stabbed in the back.)

Another bunch is going to Atlantic City. A few girls are thinking about Ireland.

For our Cancun group, it's going to be around five girls, ten guys for about four days and ... yeah, I didn't even know we had so many guys in our class. Usually, girls outnumber guys in our classes, but the numbers just kept racking up. Eh, having a large group can be hard sometimes for vacations. Someone's bound to rub me the wrong way at times and there's no real escape.

I'm just hoping the place would be nice and tropical and I won't get sunburnt. That, and I'm looking forward to good food and drinks. Drunken revelers better get out of my way to the restaurants because even though I'm only about 100 pounds, I can eat my weight's worth and I will trample you for it. Just watch.

Professor was like: "HELEN, you going to Mexico too?"

Nod.

"HELEN, you going to drink from 10am to 1am?"

Friend laughed. "Those are the times when they're serving drinks. Helen can't drink. She's gone after a bit."

Professor nodded sagely, holding up his fingers an inch apart. "One drink?"

"Unfortunately," I sighed. "Yes."

Back to studying!

More Anatomy and Some Slumdog

We're working on the genital regions now. Enough said.

Some of my group members got scolded yesterday for accidentally cutting through the pudendal nerve so after a while, most of them migrated elsewhere to deal with tagging skeleton parts, leaving me alone to dig through the butt area.

TA returned and was like "Where'd your friends go? They left you all alone!"

Then he peered closer at my work so far, patted me on the shoulder and said, "Good work! See? We can see the inferior rectal nerve now. Keep clearing that fascia! Good!"

Thanks. Truly, that's been a huge dream of mine, excelling in the art of buttock fat removal.

Once again, I need to catch up on readings - especially for abdomen. Exhausted! I'm so scared I'd fail the next exam. :(

On another note, I saw Slumdog Millionaire a while back. I can see why it's such a hit. The story had an interesting premise and was absolutely heartwarming, the child actors were excellent (especially in consideration of their backgrounds), the cinematography was awesome, and the soundtrack was gorgeous. I've always been fond of Bollywood music - the fast paced dance songs never fail to bring a smile to my face. I think it's the same reason why I'm a fan of old time musicals as well.

The music for this movie wasn't exactly the traditional Bollywood song and dance type, but A.R. Rahman's work for the soundtrack was stellar. I keep listening to O...Saya in particular. I think the drum beats really reflect the rhythm of a train chugging away across the land well - I keep remembering the scene during the two brothers' journey and how they locked hands as they nodded off on top of the train so that they wouldn't topple off while it was in motion. I really adore the little kids.



And of course, the sweet ending song when they finally found their way back to each other again in the deserted train station ...

Through Me Character Pics - Nelaela

Nelaela (notmaryjane) sent along some more character pictures for Through Me. Thanks!

Adeline Bradbury - Marie Digby.
Nelaela says: "What can I say? she looks perfect, for me, anyway. ;) lol. She's half Irish and Japanese."







Tristan Harland - Robert Hoffman



Sammy Westlane - Emmy Rossum
Nelaela says: "Yeah, I know what you're thinking, she's not even a redhead, buuut, let me finish first, she got this innocent and cute feeling that when I saw her pics, I'm like "ohmigawd. if she's a redhead, she'll be a pefect sammy!" Not to mention, she's so pretty, and adorable (like Sammy)."





Thanks, Nelaela!

I'm really craving sushi right now. Spicy salmon, dragon rolls ... COME TO ME!

Fanart - shesaidhesaid

shesaidhesaid sent along some graphics inspired by Through Me. Thanks! They're absolutely lovely. I'm particularly fond of the bench one. :)

Bench

Kite

While I was waiting for my train this morning, a man passed by behind me talking on his cellphone: "What do kids care about Valentine's Day!"

Incredulous pause.

"Max has a girlfriend?? Max is five!"

The young ones grow up fast these days.

Through Me Chapter 26

Through Me Chapter 26 has been posted. It's 22 pages and nearly took the life out of me.

I haven't started my readings for Anatomy yet and I'm back to panic mode now and my friend's probably going to reinforce my panic mode with a message "YOU FAIL!" very soon.

Today, a TA went around the table asking each kid what the differences between small and large intestines were. Since we didn't have our lecture on the intestines yet nor did we get up to the readings for that section yet, we all fumbled. The first five kids guessed and threw out random answers for him to correct and by the time he reached me, I had no clue what other differences there were and I couldn't very well repeat the same answers ("Uh, large intestines are larger than small intestines.") so what I finally decided on was: "I don't know."

So eloquent.

TA (he always picks on me!) narrowed his eyes at me. "What textbook do you study from?"

Ouch. Everyone at the table was like "OHHHH!" and I could kill them.

I muttered, "Essential Clinical - ah, what the heck, I didn't read the sections for intestines yet."

But TA was still having fun and didn't wait for my answer, continuing, "Because whatever book you used, I want to buy. I've never seen an "I don't know" answer before!"

Again with the "OHHHH!" Seriously, all these kids are going down.

So TA asked me, "So your book says "I don't know"?"

"Yeah." I nodded. When I have no clue what to do, the best bet is to go along with things and try to wing it. "Exactly. It lists "I don't know."

"Then which part of the intestines is "I don't know" then?"

I cleared my throat. "The small intestines."

"The small intestines?"

"That's correct. The small intestines."

"Ah, okay." He smiled and moved on to the next target. "What's another difference?"

The girl next to me grimaced, staring down at the cadaver. "Uh, I read the same book she does."

Everyone cracked up and he went onto the next four people, circling back around the group and everyone continued to stammer, unable to come up with an answer. Who's laughing now, laughers?

We are so sad.

And I really need to go read the book now before TA finds me again and I come up with another genius answer.

"No comment."

Writing Status

I've been super busy these days with Anatomy and exams and family stuff - there aren't enough hours in the day. Last Monday was the New Lunar Year so Happy New Year to everybody! 2009 is the Year of the Ox and hopefully, this year will be great for everyone.

I just stayed up really late to finish up Chapter 26 for Through Me since it's been forever since my last update. I have 22 pages and I'm pretty much done, but since it's really late now and I'm not sure my brain's been functioning well, I'd like to post the chapter later when I'm more refreshed and have had a chance to look it over and see if certain parts jive with me. As with every chapter, I might switch around scenes, cut out parts, or break up bits. Stay tuned.

Since my schedule's been jammed pack these days, I haven't had a chance to sort through and respond to messages yet so my apologies for the delay - I'm not purposely ignoring you!

Last Friday was the suckiest day ever. I had my first Anatomy exam and practical and made a ton of stupid mistakes and I don't even want to face my professor anymore in case he can somehow zero in on me as the girl who put down "Infraspinatus" instead of "Supraspinatus". I'm an idiot. I glanced at the pinned structure so quickly, I just jotted it down without even looking at the part again and thinking about my answer again. My mind just flew back to the last question regarding the spinal cord and - I just want to kick myself.

Also, I thought there was a pebble in my shoe the whole day, but it turned out, for some odd reason, a tiny shard of glass had somehow found its way into my sneaker and by the time I realized, it had cut through my sock into my toe and my sock was dotted red with my blood.

Anyway, the week begins again and it's way too late now. Class tomorrow's going to suck for me since I haven't finished my readings and plan to wake up early tomorrow to complete them. I just wish I had a photographic memory sometimes. Okay, not sometimes. Always! My eyes are dying on me so this is just a quick update to let you all know that I haven't expired (yet) and I haven't forgotten about writing either. Thanks for your patience and lovely comments, all!