Life's crazyness wrapped in a wall of text

It’s been a while since I wrote a blogpost and it’s partly because of the exams and deadline projects for school (the other part is me being too lazy to write, haha). Here’s an update of what I’ve been up to lately:

Watching Leverage

A friend of mine recommended me to watch TNT’s Leverage. The show’s about four (solo working) thieves who each have their own specialty and an ex-insurance investigator who knows how to combine each specialty into one team that gives ‘leverage’ for those that need it. Each character has a distinct and interesting personality which, combined with some witty humor and clever plots for each episode, makes the show worth the watch. I’ll definately be looking out for season 2, that is going to air this summer in USA.

Enjoying with friends after our exam and before our practical test

Photos of that day can be found here: dukath.fab4.be/wendy. I haven’t selected any pictures yet to upload them on my own album. Basically, this day was planned because we had mad fun the first time we did it and it was meant for us to relax a bit after a busy period which actually wasn’t over yet due to the practical test that was planned for next week. It was a succes nevertheless. (Don’t mind me hula hooping on the Wii Fit…)

To the cinema with my sisters

In the same week before the practical test, my two big sisters came to visit us and decided we should do something nice. Apart from all the physical examinations I did to practice (thanks!), we also wanted to go to the cinema. It was “He’s Just Not That Into You” vs. “X-men Origins: Wolverine”. With my exceptional convincing power ( :whistle: ), I managed to drag my lil sis (my big sisters didn’t mind) to X-men Origins and eventually she actually wanted to watch more Hugh Jackman (X-Men Trilogy, Australia). I can’t blame her.

I had big hopes for X-men Origins (I get that feeling each time a (famous) superhero movie is being released, though). My hope started to sink a bit in the beginning because the story progressed very, very slow. Luckily after the break, the pace fastened and it ended up being a decent movie that was worth the money spent. Liev Schreiber as Victor Creed (Sabretooth) definately stood out while Taylor Kitsch’s role as Remy LeBeau (Gambit) was disappointing at best.

Practical test

The practical test is where your med skills are tested through various (little) tests that are observed and graded. This is probably the stress moment of the year for most first year med students. Luckily, I had a few friends who were willing to undergo some horrid examinations (thanks ). Things I had to do were a neurologic examination, put a bandage on a hand (which didn’t really go to well ), heart examination, abdominal examination and venapunction. Just like most students, I was friggin’ nervous about the test but things went smoothly.

Two new X-box 360 games: Dead Space and Infinite Undiscovery

I’m still playing Resident Evil 5 but I managed to get two games that I really wanted for a while now. They were cheap too, Dead Space being a bestseller and Infinite Undiscovery doesn’t go for more than $10 in the US now. Dead Space is one of the scariest third person shooters I’ve ever played. After playing Dead Space, I might understand why people were a bit disappointed with the scareness level of Resident Evil 5 (Resident Evil being the mother of survival horror games). Resident Evil 5 pretty much wasn’t scary at all. Both games are awesome nevertheless and I definately do not regret buying Dead Space. I have mixed feelings about Infinite Undiscovery (something you wouldn’t expect from a Tri Ace and Square Enix game). The game looks great, has a very fun combat system but there are a few things that are really nagging me. First of all, lip syncing is totally off, the dialogues (sometimes) are SO cheesy and sometimes the voice overs are missing (only subtitles are being displayed)! And secondly, the game isn’t always as clear as you’d like when it comes to objectives; so unless you’re playing with a guide, you’ll be stuck running around hoping you’ll find the way. The combat system is Infinite Undiscovery’s best aspect and I’ll continue to play the game because of that.

Playing as a photographer at a 25 year marriage party

I was invited to a party by a friend because his parents needed a photographer. I’m not (by a long shot) a professional photographer, but I do enjoy making photos and was very glad they asked me to do it (they didn’t necessarily wanted a professional photographer). I took the oppertunity to practice my skills and shot a bit less than 300 photos. That’s probably the biggest photoshoot I’ve done so far. Alas, bigger isn’t always better but the photos came out pretty nice and I hope they like them too (I’m still awaiting opinions as of now ).

Upcoming events

Right now, I have two more deadline projects to finish in the upcoming month and one more course to go before the summer break.

You might have noticed a “today’s events” and “upcoming events” header on the right side. That’s a new plugin called calendar in which I’ll put stuff that interest me (such as series/movies/games release dates and the like).

I’m anxiously waiting for:

Montyoum’s Dead Fantasy III and IV (May 20)
Resident Evil 5 Formula Setting Artbook (May 25)
Star Ocean 4 (May 28)
Terminator Salvation (June 3)
Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen (June 24)

Spirometry
Spi*rom”e*try\, n. The act or process of measuring the chest capacity by means of a spirometer.

There, that saves me the trouble of explaining the whole spirometry thing.

I had a not-so-comfortable experience at the general practitioner regarding spirometry due to weird chest pressures, especially when I was lying in bed making it (seemingly) hard to breathe. So yeah, this practical kind of brought those memories back.

As I had expected, my values were below the average and I’m not sure if this has something to do with my previous experience. I guess I will find out once we’re done with the report. I did the practical with my new great college group 34. We also had a drink and a good talk after the practical at the student restaurant of which I’ve only taken one picture. The other pictures are all from the spirometry practical.

Oh, and I just got message that I passed my second test! Yay me! :mrgreen:

The pictures can be found here: 12-12-08 Spirometry

Yeah, I didn’t bring the Canon camera unfortunately. They were made with my iPhone.

Our case: Here’s a guy with a spleen rupture. Here’s an echo, find out what’s wrong. Luckily, they’ve made notes about where the spleen is located on the echo. We wouldn’t have ever figured that one out!

But today, we had our practical echography. Someone removes his or her clothes and lays down while we get to poke him or her with the transducer :mrgreen:. Ofcourse, gel had to be added between the transducer and the skin so it removes the air. Ohh, love that gel. Spray it EVERYWHERE! In the end, our test subjects (who were collegue students, actually) were all over with it.

Fun practical indeed, oh and we learned a lot too. Recognised those organs at last!

Lev.

We had to inject into a sponge on our first training so that wasn’t a big deal really (but just as interesting!). Today however, on our second injection training, we had to inject each other (!) with physiological salt so it was quite exciting for us all. Especially because I was rather forced to do my training today instead of friday. If I was able to do it on friday, I would’ve at least practiced the injection once more. Also, I was in a group with people I didn’t know, while I preferred to do these kind of things with familiar faces. Upon entering the room, it immediately became clear that each duo knew each other except for me and another guy. So naturally, we teamed up and started preparing the needles. The first injection was a so called subcutane (what’s that in English?) injection, it’s an injection not too deep into your skin just below the surface. We did it on our upper arm. Both getting stung and stinging went very good. I became a bit tense on the second injection, the intramusculair injection (into the muscle). This one is done in the butt and it goes A LOT deeper than the subcutane injection. Ofcourse, a bigger needle had to be used because of that. I wasn’t scared of the needle, I’ve never been scared of needles but you ARE getting stung in a muscle which isn’t just a soft spot. Quite scary to sting someone else with it too but again, it went really well for both of us.

While I was a bit nervous for this training because of above called reasons, I’m glad it went so well. I was lucky enough to get teamed up with a very nice guy who knew what he was doing and we both were very satisfied with the results. In the end, I had enjoyed this training enormously!

Lev.

I was at the university with my tutor group and somebody knocked at the door. We let them in and they called out my name and another group member’s name. They gave us two a rose. We were like, what the…? o_o There was no card attached, just a piece of paper with the following words: Ball, 21st of November, theme announcement on monday 22:00 at a local cafe. So either way, I think this is more of an advertisement to come to the Ball rather than someone specific actually inviting me to come. I noticed that many people who went to the medicine introduction camp with Pulse in August (the medicine society) got a rose so maybe that’s something got to do with it. Still, quite fun to see, I never gotten a rose before. :mrgreen: