Friday, May 8, 2009

Moonlight

I really would have taken a picture but my wonderful camera phone has been locked...

At the bus stop outside my house, on the top of the hill, the night sky brought about an unusual feeling of serenity. Iridescent diamonds speckled the velvet expanse while a continual contest of light and shadow was played out on the clouds. I was embraced by the warm illumination from the full moon as the cool sea breeze caressed the contours of my body. The smell of the sea, under the moonlight made me feel... different.

Today has been quite good for me. Despite the serious sleep deficiency from cramming for the Biochemistry exam today, I managed to get up and prepare for Uni without too much difficulty. My motor skills were slightly... delayed at the start but it resumed functioning normally after a while. First lesson for the day was a maths lecture for 2 hours. It ended 10 minutes early so I seized the opportunity to go to the library to study. The 3rd floor of the library had just been renovated. It looks really good now. I would have camwhored a bit but I didn't have the time or the equipment. I studied for the next 2 hours, doing last minute cramming before heading for the exam venue at the Biomedical theatres. The exam went pretty well. I completed the exam within 20 minutes. There were a lot of details in the lecture notes but the exam questions were really easy. There were 12 MCQs, 6 short answers and 1 essay. The essay asked for a discussion of chemiosmosis theory and how it relates to the coupling of ATP synthesis and oxidative phosphorylation. After the exam, I had a physiology tutorial. Some of us decided to ditch our designated tutorial group and join our other friend's. When we got there, I saw this pretty hot guy. (He's a student, does physiology and biochemistry with me. Very good looking but rumoured to be as obtuse as he is good looking. Caucasian, tall, good body, good facial features.) Anyways, the tutor for this tutorial was this daggy old lady. 2 minutes into the lecture, my friend and I decided to leave and go to our old tutorial group. We made it back in time. We had a new tutor as well. She was a doctor that assisted us in some of our physio labs. Quite young, pretty, slim, with skin as clear as Miranda Otto. Today's tutorial was on the cardiovascular system. I didn't revise any of the lectures before the tutorial but I did manage to get some of the questions correct.

I popped off to the city after tutorial to meet up with my sister. She had gone to get her nails done and when I got there, we just walked around for a bit. We went to Myers to test out their perfume. I like the new Guerlain Homme but I decided not to buy it yet as it would have been on impulse if I did anyways. The top note was a gentle fusion of lime and mint, creating a slightly herbaceous opening. After a few moments, the middle notes surfaced, revealing bergamot, green tea & pelargonium. The middle notes were really refreshing and not stinging. The scent progressed to mellow down with cedar and vetiver while retaining the cool mint through the entire duration which blended well to create a soft, sweet, cool note. Guerlain Homme is a clean fragrance, well balanced and sophisticated. It's classy and modern. The more I think about it, the more tempted I am to get it.
On the note of perfumes, I was complimented on my signature scent, YSL L'Homme today. It's neither overpoweringly musky nor sickeningly cloying but a perfect balance, like yin and yang (possibly androgynous?).

It has been a pretty good day overall but I will endeavour to get some work done this weekend!

Lurbs yew long time,
Jo(n)
(Apologies for the weird paragraph up the top, I was inspired momentarily and started churning out literary nonsense. If my high school english teacher read that, she would probably be spewing blood from the overused clichés.)

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Tipsy

Hiiiiiiiiii,

I just got home from going out to Westfield Bondi Junction. Was out for some retail therapy but I behaved and didn't buy anything... much... Had some champagne, but it wasn't really champagne, more like sparkling white wine. I think it was Sauvignon Blanc... Overall quite light to the palate, slightly sour, overall verdict, glorified soda water with table wine.

Today's biochemistry lab invovled diluting urine samples and checking the levels of Urea, Creatinine and Uric Acid and hence determining the possible diets and problems the patient might have. I was quite content with my results as it was very close to the actual results. We got to use cyanide today. After that lab I had a slight headache from the hydrogen cyanide fumes even though it was done in the fumehoods. Smelled like bitter almonds.

Ugh, I have to start studying for my biochemistry exam on friday and get that blasted Maple program online test crap done... What a shitty week... Luckily I have a small vial of cyanide to bail me out if the need arises! (Bet some of you would want me to drink it wouldn't you, evil bastards! Too bad, I didn't get to take any. It would probably be too diluted to do any major damage anyways. Although, the LDLo for humans is only 2.847mg/kg... Mmmmm...)

Lurbs yew long time,
Jo(n)

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Why is it week 8 already!?!?!

Yaho!

Time never flew this fast last semester! Ultimate gheyness ftw!
I think I failed Physiology... The mid-semester exams were just depressing. But the labs have been pretty fun in the recent weeks. In week 7 it was cutting up a sheeps heart and using palpation and auscultation method to determine diastolic and systolic pressures of the heart. In week 6 I got to cut open an anaesthetised toad. I named her Sally (it probably was a male toad since there weren't any eggs but I was in a Sally-dissecting mood). First thing I took out of Sally's tiny incision were his lungs. They look really nice under the microscope. One could see blood flowing through maze of capillaries shimmering from the light of the Nikon microscope. We were supposed to be "ethical" when handling Sally so we weren't allowed to take pictures. I had to stick Sally's lungs back through the small hole and then locate and pull out his bladder. It was pretty full, good thing I didn't pop it otherwise I'd have toad pee all over. It was surprising resilient to my enthusiastic handling. I'm usually a lot more delicate but I was having a ball of a time with Sally since no one else on my bench dared to cut open a living toad. (I was probably having way too much fun than a "normal" person would!) The transparent sac of the bladder had sprial vessels but Sally's was so full they were stretched out so they didn't look as pretty under the microscope. After viewing it and making sure he was still moist with the anaesthetic, i had to tuck Sally's bladder back in but much to my dismay, Sally's bladder seemed to have developed a liking for the outside world and would ever so often pop back out when I was fiddling around looking for the mesentry in the small intestine. The blood vessels were pretty big and we managed to see some leucocytes rolling around in the blood vessels. Sally was a wonderful toad that didn't smell at all, unlike Bob that had an odour pungent enough to penetrate my Bvlgari Aqua Marine barrier! The prac was coming close to the end. We had to notice was the effects of adrenaline application and haemorrhage via severing the femoral artery. I must say, Sally wasn't very good at bleeding at all! But we did get to notice the haemodilution. The last thing we had to do before the end of the practical was to sever Sally's heart. No one else at my bench really wanted to do it but I didn't want to miss out on the opportunity to remove Sally's still beating heart from his body. I didn't do a very good job though, I cut too low, severing the aorta instead so blood just squirted on the bench. Good thing it didn't get into anyone's eye though! It was still beating even after it was removed. I held Sally's tiny heart in my hand. It was such an interesting feeling. That practical was probably the best practical so far!

Well, week 8 is about to start, the weather is getting colder so I get to dress up a bit more :D I'll put up some recent pictures in a while if I can remember to get it done! (Added below!)

semi-taitai gaze
Close upThe infamous duck-pout. As you can probably tell, I don't do this in public.

Lurbs yew long time,
Jo(n)
(Sorry my train of thoughts are quite broken up at the moment so my post might not be as logical as I'd have liked it to be.)