Captain Planet, He's Our Hero

When I was a kid, my cousins and my brother and I would play "make-believe anything". No, that's not what we called it, but we were really, really into this make-believe business. We acted out anything from our own hot creative mess of a Mighty Mutant Morphin' Club to The Boxcar Children to camping with a blanket over four chairs until we grew so big, one of our cousins was inevitably stuck sleeping "outside under the stars". And we loved to pretend we were Captain Planet's Planeteers. We even made our own paper rings, we were that legit yo.

Except whenever we played make-believe, my brother - the youngest - always got stuck with the less than heroic role. We were always "saving" him and he was always getting "hurt" or "kidnapped" and he could never ever be Fire because my older cousin already got dibs, but we tried to pretend his Earth power was still cool. Usually by going "AHHHHH!" and staggering around the room whenever he brandished his ring and belted out, "EARTH!" Like we were in some epic earthquake.

I remember now that we must have fed him some line such as you can play Earth and Heart. Two powers! What a bargain! But honestly, years later, I couldn't even remember there was a Heart person until a friend recently mentioned it in a late night conversation. Why were we discussing Captain Planet? Can't remember, don't ask haha.

Him: "No one ever wanted to play Heart. He was useless."
Me: "Heart? There's no element like that."
Him: "There is a Heart power. No lie. He was that short little kid with a monkey -"
Me: "OH! Wait ... what exactly did Heart do?"
Him: "Exactly. What does Heart do?"

Well, apparently, Heart can speak to animals ... and care about people a lot ... and I guess, recycle really well.

So naturally, my little brother would gamely pretend to talk to a stuffed monkey for all of five seconds before "EARTH! EARTHQUAKE!"

"AHHHHH!"

This comic made me think of him and our cousins and our younger, more carefree years. Do I feel old.

If we had played this Guntron team though ... yeah, bro would probably have been the bullet. Haha.

How to Ruin a Celebrity Sighting

Warning: This post contains some general spoilers for last season's Grey's Anatomy. 

I was on the train with a friend a while back when all of a sudden, she pulled out her cellphone and mumbled, "Here, I want to show you something."

Since this usually meant she had something to say that she couldn't voice out loud, I went silent and waited.

Her thumbs flew over her qwerty pad for a bit before she showed me the message: Doesn't that girl sitting across from us look a lot like Reed from Grey's Anatomy? 

First thing that popped into my head: Sure, celebrities on a train. Yeah, right. 

So ...

"Who's Reed?" I blurted out loudly. 

My friend gawked at me, her eyes flickering over to the girl in question, and she covered her face in mortification. "You know ... Grey's Anatomy!" she hissed.

"I don't know. I don't watch much Grey's. I only caught part of the season finale when most of them were dead or shot already. So ... she died, right? Like ... on the floor?" I asked, not bothering to whisper since there was no way the girl across from us could possibly connect the fact that we were talking about Grey's Anatomy in reference to her so-called resemblance to one of the characters. So what if she looked like this Reed character? It's not like she's actually Reed. "She must have been one of the first ones dead, right?"

Friend stares at me, speechless.

"So who is she exactly? Did you like her character?"

"Well, yeah ... she was ..." My friend gave up. "Google when you get home."

So I finally turned my full attention to the girl across from us and since her eyes were cast down, I helped myself to an unhealthy amount of ogling. Memorizing her face so I'd remember her features for googling purposes later. Admiring the knit hat she wore over her short pixie cut. Eyeing the black Chanel bag resting on her lap. Sighing over her knee high brown boots. Ogle ogle ogle.

But while she was very chic and pretty with this slight smile playing on her lips, she seemed like a regular rider blissfully unaware of the silent scrutiny from the strange girls across from her.

Later, when I got home, the first message I received from my friend was: GOOGLE REED! NOW!

Then she immediately followed that up with a link to the Google images she'd already pulled up. Reed a.k.a. Nora Zehetner.

 tvguide.com

Oh. Wow.

Reed from Grey's Anatomy was sitting on the train across from us.

Reed from Grey's Anatomy was sitting on the train across from us!, I typed to my friend.

Friend: yeah, it was totally her because when you said who's reed so loudly, she laughed a little when I looked over at her. thts why i covered my face!

Me: what? really? dude, i kept staring at her! i thought i was being so stealthy.

Friend: omg rofl.

Me: no wonder she kept smiling.

Friend: haha

Me: and there I was ... just leering at her.

Friend: lol it was totally her. i just can't believe you said who's reed so loudly.

Me: well ... i didn't believe you. 

Friend: i'm good with faces!

Me: i just thought you were one of those sad people who think they see celebrities everywhere. like elvis.

Friend: What??

More recently, a summary: School. Got dragged to one of those haunted attractions thingies by friends for Halloween; don't ask me to describe what happened in there because I came out in a bleary daze. School. Had Thanksgiving dinner at cousins' place where we roasted a whole turkey for the first time in our lives (we were more of a chicken family before). School. Had rounds shadowing doctor for chest pain and renal failure patients. Wrote a paper on pros and cons of TOLAC (trial of labor after c-sections) and had a workshop presentation debate on it yesterday. Exams on path and pathophys still coming up.

Question in a previous post comment from Anonymous: Can you please blog about your pre-med and med school experience in general? Like how hard it is? :O 

Sure! I'll try? Haha, I'll attempt to write some slightly interesting posts soon but sometimes, it's hard thinking of a good topic since not everything is cool and all shocking medical cases like you see on House or roller coaster drama like Grey's Anatomy or something like that. The life is more like ... a whole lotta studying. And running on little sleep. And trying not to give wrong answers to the doctors who point you out in your small group. Boring and a little sad. If I really write what goes on usually each day, you'll probably pass out asleep by the first paragraph.

But if you want to know a little about what I did yesterday, it went something like this:

9am: Trying to print paper in computer lab before workshop starts. Classmate runs up begging me to print two copies of his paper too. REJECTION! New cheap-ass environmentally friendly limitations on printing page quota means hell no, classmate should must log into his own account to print his own mess. He continues to beg, unwilling to deal with the hassle of logging in and out due to the time, and then offers an I.O.U. for double the pages on his account. Alright, fine. I will collect.

10am-noon: Workshop debate on VBAC versus C-sections. Doctor's wisdom: EBM ≠ CYAM. (Evidenced Based Medicine ≠ Cover Your Ass Medicine.)

12pm-1pm: Lunch from the nearby deli. I'm all sandwiched out. :(

1pm-4pm: Lectures ... oh my god ... must ... stay ... awake ... Oh, hey, crossword in the newspaper.

4pm-6pm: Small group on chest X-rays. Gets called up to the front of the room to point out what's abnormal. "Err ... look at the lines ... the EKG leads ... is this AP*? No? Okay ... well ... the heart is, um, pushed toward the right." "Yeah, good, sort of ... the patient has dextrocardia." "Right, exactly. ... I'll just go sit back down now."

And this has mostly been the general routine of my pathetic life, rinse and repeat. Now I just need to get through a chest x ray assignment, two more exams, and then it should be winter break! Where I'd then have board exams to prep for. Yippee. But I'll try to fit in some writing time too hopefully. Until then, please bear with me for my slow responses and updates.

TM Chapter 29 Status: 11 pages in

*By the way:
AP = anteroposterior (X-ray beams pass from front-to-back)
dextrocardia =  heart is located in the right side of the chest instead of the left

Monsters Inside Me

A guest lecturer showed us a clip from Animal Planet's documentary series Monsters Inside Me about malaria in class a few weeks ago. (Same professor who is friends with Edward Cullen.)



Anyway, we thought the featured doctor looked kinda familiar, but we were a bit preoccupied with laughing at the dramatic scrolling scene of the doctor posing in the hallway with arms crossed, superhero style.

Then his name was credited. Hey! Familiar looking superhero is our guest professor! Only he looked more, ah, studious in the clip with his eyeglasses and white coat and so ...

We laughed some more.

Professor's insight into the behind-the-scenes making of these documentaries: "We filmed it in one of those offices at Mount Sinai and for some reason, they had the heat on extremely high and they had all these lights so, uh, we would stop every two minutes because I was sweating and it looked like I had malaria."

Excellent.

Just had an exam on Monday, a presentation yesterday, and now I'm working on small group preparations and studying viruses.

Traditional Sex

Pharmacology is going okay so far. The power of drugs, ooh. (Btw, never take Tylenol with alcohol or after drinking. Acetaminophen, the primary active ingredient in Tylenol, causes irreversible liver damage in combination with alcohol. Thus, my professor - who likes a glass of wine everyday - avoids Tylenol completely.)

Medical interviewing is moving along too. Preventing cultural bias, patient education, all that jazz.

My group discussed proper interviewing techniques on how to gather a complete medical history with our preceptor at our field site the other day. Naturally, some of the questions must pertain to somewhat more sensitive topics - i.e. depression, substance abuse, sexual history, etc.

So when we get that point, our preceptor sat back, folding her hands over her pregnant belly, and asked, "So what are some ways we can ask for a person's sexual history?"

Guy in group: "Are you sexually active?"

Preceptor: "Uh huh ... and?"

Guy: "Um, have you ever had oral sex? Anal sex?" (Sounds funny, but these are actually valid questions that should be asked by any good practitioner since it's best that we narrow down to the very specifics. There are many more people out there than there should be who believes that they're not "sexually active" per se when they're having other forms of sex. Ditto for drug abuse.)

Preceptor: "Okay ... and how would you refer to regular sex?"

Guy: "Regular sex ...?"

Preceptor: "You've listed oral and anal, so how would you ask about just sex? Feel free to jump in, the rest of you."

Guy: "Um ..."

Girl: "Well ... are you ... hmm ..."

Preceptor: "How would you ask the patient? How would you say - describe - how would you ask about just traditional sex -"

Me: "Missionary."

Group busted up laughing.

The sad part was I hadn't even meant it as a joke. I was just sitting there quietly and the next thing I knew, my mouth went on automatic pilot mode. As soon as I heard traditional ... "MISSIONARY!" Like those old SATs analogies. Brain fart.

The preceptor was totally unfazed though and she nodded. "Uh huh, that's a position. How else can we ask about sex?"

Me trying to redeem myself: "Gah ... oh! Vaginal ... penetration ..." Just give up, brain.

The whole group was still hiding their laughter and the preceptor gave up on us. "Sexual intercourse! Have you ever had sexual intercourse? Right?"

Group: "Ahhh."

We sound like a bunch of slow dimwits, but it's harder than you think to find the proper wording sometimes for a patient. We all get the general gist of what we're supposed to ask, but when you're put on the spot and you're caught up with balancing patient and doctor agendas ... the wording tends to escape the mind at some moments. It tends to be easier with a real patient though - you go with the flow and there's no preceptor to pick at your wording problems.

Many doctors should work on interview skills though. Doctors who barely ask questions or who keep their eyes focused solely on the computer records usually overlook things or just leave the patient more confused or dissatisfied.

Group-mate after session: "Missionary, huh? Guess we know what you were doing during the weekend."

Ha ha.

If you haven't happened upon this clip yet, Kseniya Simonova - the winner of Ukraine's Got Talent 2009 - is a sand animator and this Youtube video of her skills is absolutely stunning. She used a giant light box, dramatic music, imagination and sand painting to interpret Germany's invasion and occupation of Ukraine during WWII. It pretty much brought the audience to tears.

Family Vacation & Parmesan Ice Cream?

My family's heading off to California in a few hours for my cousin's wedding. Yay!

Bad news is I'm not going. No. I'm stuck at home. Studying. Yay.

So they spent last night packing and preparing and they were all busily trying on clothes for the wedding, comparing outfits and ties and shoes ... so I went and tried on some of my pretty dresses too. Whee, let me dream.

Dad snorted when he found me in front of the mirror.

Mom was blunter. "Fool, what are you trying on stuff for? You're not even going."

:(

I shall smuggle my way into their carry-on tonight.

Random tidbit, I'm a fan of Jane Austen so during one of my moments of boredom/procrastination, I was randomly researching the Regency era and happened upon an episode of this British food/culture show: The Supersizers Go Regency.



The Supersizers Go ... have many episodes showing various periods of British History (i.e. the Elizabethan, the Victorian, the Twenties Eras), but I happened upon the Regency episode first. Basically, it takes the concept from the movie, Super Size Me, which was about Morgan Spurlock eating nothing but McDonalds for a month and then checking the effects on his health afterward (horrific). Well, this show features restaurant critic Giles Coren and comedian Sue Perkins as they spend a week "in" a certain era, including dressing, eating and participating in the various pursuits (including a ball and how to "capture a husband") of that time period, before they conclude with a health check up to study the overall effects on their body. It's interesting - a lil bit of humor, health, cooking and historical info all at once.

And some of the food options ... cheese with maggots, parmesan ice cream ... heh.

This is Part 1 of the The Supersizers Go Regency episode. If you're interested, you should be able to check out the rest on youtube.

Basshole Pouts & Voyeuristic Bubble Baths

I took my Biochem exam yesterday and it was horrific. I can't even think about it without feeling the need to curl up into a random corner of my room. The end.

Also, because of my furious cramming and essay writing, I am so behind on NaNoWriMo that my NaNoWriMo calendar widget so far is coded alarm red because that's supposed to be the color when I've done monstrously bad. That's sure to be alarming.

So I went on a night of braindead frenzy instead as I caught up with random TV shows. Watched Gossip Girl and marveled at the way Chuck Bass can do his "pursing of the lips in cynical thought" thing (a.k.a. the Basshole pout?), the number of times his soulful lips juts out is probably more than all the girls in the show combined. And these are high elite teenage girls who have to stress about, like, getting into Yale, hitting all the hot spots, hooking up with cute boys, trying to get family time in with Mommy and Stepfather #5, AND making sure they still look damn hot. Whoa, these brave souls with their lipgloss slicked lips must be true masters at holding back their angsty facial expressions.

That being said, Chuck Bass is my favorite Gossip Girl character. I have an unhealthy fondness of watching the sadistic relationship between Blair and Chuck - they just make things so much more interesting. (A side note, the couple's joint name is CHAIR? What? Bluck wasn't cool enough?)

Chair Reunion. Or Team Bluck. Featuring Chuck Bass' Blue Steel pout.

Next up was America's Next Top Model. What is going on with that show? One minute, the awkward, eccentric European Marjorie is wrangling her hands and going "I'm so insecure!" and the next, she's frolicking in the bathtub with two other girls, having a threesome bubble bath. Episode 11, she follows her go-sees debacles up with a second tearful bath while her best buddy sits along the side of the tub, sipping from a mug as she observes Marjorie bathing and bemoaning, "I wish I was more confident!"

I don't know about you, but the last time I took a bath with someone watching was when my mom still had to prop me up so I wouldn't drown.

Or who knows, maybe I'm just the odd one who doesn't rank friends watching you take a bath up there as a fun girl-bonding session. Hmmm.

Back to writing papers and working on the next chapter (How do you get out of awkward situations? Adel says: Run.) in between trying to claw my way back up to a NaNoWriMo friendly word count.

Lost in Austen

I'm back to work and it's not going too well. So in between readings for school, I did what every student does in times of studying: procrastinate.

Somehow, I happened upon Lost in Austen, a four-episode British show based on Pride and Prejudice. I'm a big fan of Jane Austen's writings, particularly Pride and Prejudice (of course) and Persuasion, so naturally, I had to check the show out.

The basic premise is that Amanda, a big-time fan of Pride and Prejudice, finds her way into the novel's world through a mysterious door in her bathroom. Elizabeth Bennet goes into the modern world while Amanda gets stuck in the Austen novel and wreaks havoc upon the plot (Bingley falls for Amanda? Jane marries Mr. Collins?!) as well as learning interesting new tidbits about the characters (Wickham is actually a good guy? Caroline Bingley is a lesbian??)

 

Amanda at Pemberley

So the rest of the show consists of Amanda running around, trying to piece the original plot back together and somehow making things even worse. It's a cute, entertaining affair that plays on every fangirl's fantasy of stepping into the role of Elizabeth and being able to latch onto Mr. Darcy and it helps that the male characters, Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley, are very easy on the eyes. :)

Doesn't Elliot Cowan, the actor who takes on the famous Fitzwilliam Darcy role, look a lot like the late Heath Ledger? Here's a brief clip for you to decide. This shows the part when Mr. Darcy declares his love for Amanda (though I could do with the excessive gasping on Amanda's part) and a little twist on the famous Colin Firth "Darcy in a wet shirt" scene from the BBC adaption of Pride and Prejudice.