Oxford handbook of clinical medicine

I've thought a lot about it and I've decided that this little gem is my all-time favorite medical text! I'm sure I'm not alone on that one, this book being a bit of a celebrity in the medical world. Not only is it a comprehensive but concise text, containing all major medical and even surgical topics, but it also mixes it up with a little literature!  When I first saw it, I loved it straight away. It's small size and the clear way it presented disease and management was everything I ever wanted in a medical book. It cuts out the BS and really gets down to the nitty-gritty. Essentially it's like your revision notes have been made for you, all you have to do is read, underline/ highlight and memorize (I hate writing/highlighting my books..the most I'll do is use a pencil to underline but never more!) and ponder. However, it goes beyond being just a simple medical text containing facts and figures. The intelligence and compassion of the authors is evident from their exploration of the importance of not losing sight of the human aspect of medicine. The importance of seeing the bigger picture, the whole story, the patients story.  When I was first reading it and came across poems by Ted Hughes and mentions of Silvia Plath and James Joyce etc I nearly shed a tear of joy. Such a beautiful way of educating people, creating wonderful and compassionate minds. Such scholastic brilliance!

The authors try to open the mind of the reader to the world around them, to the those things that may be overlooked when one becomes lost in the factual details. Medicine isn't as simple as diagnosing and treating a disease, it goes way beyond that. Among other things, it's about understanding, empathizing, respecting and being compassionate. It's so easy to remove oneself from the emotional, spiritual and human side of things as one gets desensitized to illness and death. I see my peers (and I'm sure they see my faults too, but one doesn't see oneself as you do others) and wonder how it is that some of them are prone to treating some patients, for example patients with broken English, as if they were devoid of personality or opinions. It really gets me frustrated and angry and I wonder how they can be exposed to the fragility of life and yet be so compassion-less?    

Here's the extract of a Ted Hughes poem called The Lodger, that comes under the cardiovascular history section:

"At night on my pillow the syncopated stagger

Of the pulse in my ear: Russian roulette: 

Every heartbeat a fresh throw of the dice...

Hypochondria walked, holding my arm

Like a nurse, her fingers over my pulse...

The sudden lapping at my throat of loose blood."

It's so beautiful how it ties in so perfectly with the medical text.

I've recently upgraded from the the 6th edition to the 8th. I'm a bit late in doing this upgrade... the 6th ed. is somewhat dated... Anyhow I thought I'd write this post in honor of the old and the new!  I really hope my love for this book, will lead me to devour it in its entirety and so I will be well prepared for my finals! Here's to praying and hoping! *clink*

I have to confess that I'm a little bit of a cheater. You see I haven't been exclusive with my love, I have another lover on the side. Naughty I know, but does it make it better if I say that it's the cousin of the OHCM? Haha, it's the Oxford Handbook of Clinical Specialties! I love this little blue book too. It's just as good and has the same wise approach to teaching. Also there's an illustration of an apple tree on the inside cover of the book and each fruit on the tree has the name of a historically significant physician. From Hippocrates to Ibn Sina. Perfect!
 

Eloquent speech

On the subject of Christoph Waltz and eloquent speech:

"Django Unchained Star Christoph Waltz on Style"

The man just speaks so damn well! Also, he has an interesting way of thinking and definitely an intelligent perspective. For me, he hit the nail on the head when he said that a man's best investment is education. A man can be robbed of his worldly possessions but never can he be robbed of what he holds in his mind (lets not get into the psychiatry side of things here). Intelligence, the greatest weapon a human can wield.

Mr Christoph Waltz

I'm pretty prone to obsessiveness and the subject of my current obsession is Christoph Waltz. I know he's the man of the moment, especially after his Bafta and Golden Globe wins for Django Unchained, but that hasn't put me off. I don't know where to begin. His acting is nothing short of incredible. In every film of his that i've seen, he manages to outshine every other actor. I'm talking about Inglorious Basterds (everyone knows how incredible the evil but somehow mesmerizing Hans Landa was), Water for Elephants, Carnage and Django unchained. I swear in every one of these films the character that impressed me most was the one that Waltz portrayed.   The thing is there is an intelligent quality to his acting, perhaps born from the fact that he has spent a lot of his career on stage, or even the fact that he is actually an intelligent and thoughtful man in real life... After watching some of his interviews I began to suspect that the personas of the characters he plays on screen are strikingly similar to his own. But he's still pretty damn versatile.

 I've spent a lot of time on youtube watching interview after interview. He's just so articulate, so elegant, so refined and so old school. And that accent... I could listen to him speak for hours on end, honestly. If I were a man, I'd hope to be like him when I grew older, a real gentleman. Also there is something about his personality, well the glimpse that we see on TV anyway, that gives me the impression that he is a kind and intelligent man in life. I feel that he would have made an excellent academic and I can only fantasize about him being one of my professors. However, aside from this new found geriophile tendency of mine (I kid, I kid!) the quality I like most in Mr Waltz, is his aura of humbleness. He seems very acutely aware of his condition, almost like he knows very well that he's mortal and not some superhuman with God-given talent that all mankind should look upto... Haha, yes I know not all actors are like that. But what I see in a lot of famous actors is a particular characteristic: Its almost as if they think their invincible. But not Christoph. He seems a lot more fragile (i'm not referring to his age here) a lot more human.  He's a talented actor, who has been given an avenue to explore his creativity and talent and I feel like he wants to grasp hold of this moment and really put everything that he has into it and generally just make the most if it. Alright, I'm aware that I'm projecting my personal ideas onto him, but it is seriously the impression I get from him. He's definitely someone I would love to be stuck next to on a long-haul flight, I can't even imagine how interesting the conversation would be.

An intelligent gaze

                                                                       

Professor Waltz

  

Mr Kaneshiro

"Dance for me woman" he says....

Takeshi Kaneshiro, what a fine actor and a fine specimen of a man. My favorite films of his include Red Cliff, Perhaps Love, Suwito Rein: Shinigami no Seido and The Warlords.  His character in Red Cliff, was my most favourite. It inspired me to write a story about a travelling mage. When I was out in Malaysia a couple of summers ago, there was a huge billboard just outside of one of the train stations in Kuala Lumpur. They had a brilliant picture of Takeshi advertising for Biotherm (see below). Walking past it every morning was the highlight of my day...so refreshing. Ahhh.

Good morning!

Random thoughts on One Piece:

1) Ronoroa Zoro is hot!
2) So is Ace!
3) I love how Vivi calls Zoro, 'Mr Bushido'.
4) Zoro's total inability to follow directions.. I don't know if I should laugh or cry?
5) The names of Sanji's attacks never fail to crack me up! Particularly: 'Frit-assorti' and 'Diable Jambe'.. Hahaha! I swear I fall over laughing so hard I cry real tears.
6) I like how much of a sucker Sanji is for the ladies, he's totally hopeless! But his over the top nose bleeds in the Fishman Island arc.... that shit was a little too crazy! Life threatening perviness?
7) I swear Robin used to be more tan? Did living on in a cold climate over the two year separation cause her to turn a shade or two lighter?
8) I hope Hancock and Luffy get together! Hopefully once he's pirate King!
9) I hope Ace has a kid somewhere out there and maybe one day that little girl/ boy will meet with and fall in love with Luffy's kid.
10) Nami can be a little annoying at times.
11) Chopper is so cute. I want one!
12) I wouldn't know which of the devil fruit powers to pick, If I had the choice.. or even If i'd choose to a have one (is it really worth being a hammer for?).. I don't think I really don't think I'd choose the gomu gomu fruit... I like Ace's power and Blackbeard's (that bastard!) too.
13) I hated Garp for a little while.... ;'(
14) If Sabo is alive, why the f*** didn't he help Ace?
15) Why the hell didn't Dragon either?
16) Man, that Shank is so sexy.
16)  Brook's little "Yo ho ho ho, yoo ho ho ho hooo" tune, made my eyes water, really did pluck on a few heart strings.
17) Going Merry ghost story was sad and sweet. I really do think inanimate objects/things can acquire a sort of soul/ something like that base don how they are used and cared for. I feel like that about my books.
18) Why didn't Luffy's appearance change much after the time skip? They should've beefed him a up a little more a made him taller. Topless and trousers would've done the job too.
19) Franky is a total hentai, but I like his whole robot act after the time skip.
   

Marquez and Magic

One Hundred Years of Solitude
“It's enough for me to be sure that you and I exist at this moment.” 

I was 17 years old when I first read this book. It was the first Marquez book that I ever read. I remember browsing through the shelves of the college library, desperately seeking a novel I could lose my self in. Those days were slightly depressing. I had no idea about what I wanted to do with my life, and the future was uncertain. I had only a single friend in the college (Hector, a seriously funny Mexican guy.  He though he was a real Casanova and would frequently grab random hot girls that passed him in college and start doing some salsa) and didn't really go out of my way to speak to anyone else. I liked being alone and enjoyed the fact that I spent my 3 hour breaks either reading or walking through Kingston. Hector, didn't have lessons on the days that I had my 3 hour break (sometimes it was four hours) and it took me about an hour (or more to get home) so going home wasn't really an option either. Sometimes I'd spend my time in the deserted library and at other times I'd go to the local Borders book shop. That was probably one of my most favorite things to do. The Borders was huge and what I loved most about it was that some of the book shelves were in an alcove-like area, framing a set of super comfortable armchairs, that you could sink into if you cared to sit down. They also had a coffee shop, so you could get your favorite beverage and curl up with a really good book. That's the sort of generosity I love. Those people really knew how to do it. They knew that some people just wanted to read a book that they either didn't want to/ couldn't afford to buy. Also some people needed a place to escape to. I spent most of the free time I had during that year in college, in the Borders. I read countless books, from random manga (they had HUGE collection) to best sellers and just about any book that sparked my interest when browsing the shelves.  

Anyhow, on one particular day, it was absolutely pouring outside and I didn't want to brave the weather, especially as I didn't have an umbrella with me, and the walk from the college to the town center wasn't a short one. So I decided to stay in the college library. I sat on a stool in the fiction section of the library, looking for something good, when I came across '100 years of solitude'.  I'd never heard of Marquez, but his name along with the blurb reeled me in. 

The story basically follows the lives of several generations of the Buendia family, who live in a fictional town called Macando.  The town was founded by Jose Arcadio Buendia, who uses his genius and tenacity to build the town and together with his wife Ursula they raise their family in Macando. One day a group of travelling gypsies passes through the town and with them they bring countless wonders; magnifying glasses, maps and compasses etc Things that the towns people have never seen or heard of. Jose Buendia becomes fascinated with the novel things he is introduced to and develops a desire to seek scientific knowledge, something that consumes him.  In the meantime his practical and capable wife manages the household and their growing brood.  As the town grows, so does the Buendia family and we watch as generation after generation live through different experiences such as birth, love, war, incest and spiritual experiences. Many things happen, I can't recall them all. But I do recall that at one point the entire town falls victim to a sinister disease that causes insomnia and subsequent loss of memories. Then there's the political stuff, the town loses some heart as it grows more bureaucratic and increasingly forgets the lawless yet harmonic living of the earlier days.       There isn't really a solid story line as in no real plot. However, overall, what we see is the rise and fall of the Buendia family as well as the town of Macando and ultimately we watch them spiral towards self destruction. I don't remember as many details of this story, as I would like to, but one characters that really made an impression on me (aside from Jose Buendia) was Remedios. Remedios, is an incredibly beautiful young woman, a great-great-great (?) granddaughter of Ursula and Jose. She is oblivious to the extent of her beauty, one that drives men wildly insane, and lives her life like a hermit, dressing in potato sacks and shaving her head. I think a young admirer even falls to his death, after slipping off a roof whilst peeking on her bathing. One day she is out in the garden and slowly and gently floats away into the sky. It's as if she was so pure and so innocent, that she was in fact other worldly. A being that transcended the mundane laws of this world.  

How handsome was he?
Taken from NY Times

What else? Well Marquez's incredible prose. It's as if his words cast a spell on me and it's not just the story that I want to know more about, I just want to read more and more of the words themselves. Real magic.

When I first read this, I was unaware of Marquez's popularity, so feel like I loved his work for what it was, rather than liking it for the popularity or something like that. I went on to read 'Love in time of Cholera', 'Leaf storm', 'Autumn of the patriarch', 'Of love and demons',  and 'Chronicle of a death foretold' and devoured them all. The magic realism, the unrestrained explorations of the dark side of human nature and the overall dream-like qualities of his novels had me enthralled and still do. I thought I had made an amazing discovery and desperately (although initially reluctantly, as I felt like I had a claim on Marquez and didn't want to share him with anyone, lest it spoil the magic)  urged my friends to share in the experience. However, I have yet to find someone who loves his works just as I do. I know there are probably lots of people out there who do, I mean someone who I know for real. One friend tried her best to read 'Love in the time of cholera', but explained on the phone to me: "Man, I tried so hard not to laugh at some points.. it's a bit dry and  can't really force myself to read the rest." Something like that. She did me wrong man.  Anyways I forced her to return what was obviously not appreciated.  Another friend said she'd skip the book and try to watch the movie, but she didn't like the accents....fruggidin fruschtigats the movie?  Hmm....

The man

I felt I totally understood the themes and the depth of Marquez's novels when I read them, but I'm sure I was too young and no doubt reading them now my understanding and views will change (I'm sure in years to come they will change again, as I grow older). But I'm glad I read them when I did. An impressionable time in my life, when my personality was yet to set. My mind was still open, untainted and fluid. I was open to the worlds that Marquez created and nothing was impossible or unrealistic. Love, sickness, death, physical pleasures, murder, incest and much more, I took it all in my stride. I was still in the process of trying to understand myself (still am) and like to think that Marquez's novels had a small part in shaping my character. I was in love with the hot, sweaty, dreamy and even sinister Latin America that Marquez explored and much like Jorge Amado (that's another story) he made me want to transport myself in time to witness this stuff with my own eyes.. but of course much of it, though undoubtedly drawn from reality and experiences, was fantastical.  

I recall reading somewhere that he penned his first work at the age of 17! Seventeen!!!! :O A real genius for sure. At one point a few years back I researched where he was living (I swear I'm not a hentai stalker) and started planning a trip to Columbia. I even checked flight prices etc and tried to figure out how to save for it and what excuse I'd use with my parents etc... I wanted really badly to meet Mr Marquez and just see what he was like in real life. I'm sure he has many more incredible stories within him that will never see paper. I want to hear what he has to say, what other stories he has and of course what inspires him. Man I would get him to write a personal message in all the books of his I own and of course I'd get a photo with him and we'd both be making the peace sign in it :D    

Mozart and geisha's

A few short months away from my finals and I'm extremely restless. My mind keeps jumping from idea to idea. I sit to study and suddenly feel hungry. I write a few words and want to hear my mothers voice. I feel over whelmed by the desire to do well and then I'm empty... I want no part in it. I want to give up. Maybe I'm not cut out for this? Then I realise that I desire this, I wished for it so badly and now I have it. How can I take it so lightly?

Accompanying my erratic mood are the following pieces. They are currently playing on repeat.

Mozart's sonata for two pianos in D major

This Instantly lifts my spirits and makes me hopeful and realistic. But then it's a sonata for two pianos and I feel rather lonely thinking of how two people should be perfectly synchronised, so perfectly in tune with one other that it would be difficult to determine where one begins and the other ends. They're so different, so distinct, yet in that moment the union is complete.

The other is a Japanese song called 'Kamisama hajimemashita' by Hanae

This tune has been stuck in my head ever since I watched an anime by the same name. I won't detail the anime, as it didn't make great impression on me, though it was cute. But the opening and ending songs of the show are great. As soon as I heard this song, a music video started to play out in my mind. That of a geisha-like girl (i say geisha-like, as I imagined her to be dressed in a Kimono, with traditional Japanese hair accessories, an oriental fan but minus the typical make-up), being repeatedly spurned by her crush (influence by the words of the song itself).  The colors of this video were vibrant, similar to Kanye's Gold digger video :D     One scene was of the girl, singing whilst the fan covered her most of face, but her eyes are captivating the viewer, another scene is of her stalking his facebook page and growing angry/sad when she sees pictures of him with other girls. She turns up to his work-related meeting (typical Japanese affair, in private restaurant room, lots of sushi, sake and of course geishas), posing as one of the working geishas and continually seeks his attention and interrupts the meeting by trying to serve him sake or dance for him etc The rest were of her earnestly attempting to woo her crush, by being cute or seductive and turning up pretty much every where he goes etc. I might admit that the girl in this conjured up music video is myself and the lead male frequently changes depending on which crush I care to remember. Yes, I know my imagination is a little silly/sad at times. But that's just me. I really like this song and the images it conjures up are very light-hearted and optimistic... definitely something that is needed during this stressful time. The above video features the singer and I was a little surprised to see the video, as it really didn't correlate at all with the one I had imagines. Sad times.


Also listening to Pachabel's canon in D major. I know it's been a somewhat commercialised/ become a little mainstream, but when I listen to this, I always feel like I'm slowly rising off the ground and floating away, faster and faster towards an endless blue sky and then it begins raining and I'm still climbing higher, meanwhile the world below continues to revolve.  Or I imagine a slow motion scene from 71 into the fire or another war movie. And Brahms symphony no 1 in c minor, when I'm feeling more melodramatic.