Spooky?

Elmo decapitated.

Brain Fuel

Twix was my choice during the stress times in Med School. But throughout my training, these divine Lindt chocolates satisfied my cocoa cravings. My neurons likely overproduce chocolate receptors as a response to stress, especially one that demands high brain power -- and thus, the cravings. But now that my test was over, these are no longer brain fuel -- or at least I can't use that excuse anymore.

But today is candy day. Or since I'm not really a candy person (special mention is caramel! Yuck!), today is chocolate day. Guiltfree. To prepare for trick or treaters knocking on my door, I had bought a package (you could say a pumpkin-full) of orange-wrapped Lindt chocolates for give-aways. I should have just gone to the dollar store and got cheap candies. But somehow I'm feeling a little generous after my boards. Maybe I've reached my chocolate high. If there are any left-overs, I can't just throw this yummy melt-in-your-mouth goodness away, can I? Chocolates are my only vice (unless you count coffee as one). I don't drink, I've never smoked, I've never done drugs -- but I enjoy a chocolate-high. Especially with a glass of milk.

Happy Halloween!

© 2006 Universal Press Syndicate

Not A Mindless Exercise

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next 4 sentences on your blog along with these instructions.
5. Don't you dare dig for that "cool" or "intellectual" book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it! Just pick up whatever is closest.

I propped myself up on an elbow and rubbed my eyes. Jenny was lying on her side, knees pulled to her chest. "The baby what?"
"I'm having bad cramps," she said. "I've been lying here timing them. We need to call Dr. Sherman."

----
I have to confess: I did not get the book that is closest to me. Had I done so, the text would have been these:

Multiple bacterial pathogens that parasitize phagocytic cells, such as macrophages, reside within the endosomal-phagosomal network. These pathogens often are accessible to the MHC Class II antigen presentation network and can colocalize with the antimicrobial effector molecules of macrophages that are delivered to the phagolysosome. Prototypical pathogens of this type include Mycobacterium and Salmonella spp. Control of these pathogens depends most on CD4+ T-cell activation of antimicrobial killing through IFN-γ. IFN-γ secreted by T cells activates macrophages to kill pathogens through nitric oxide, reactive oxygen intermediates, and lysosomal enzymes. Strong evidence of the importance of these pathways of intracellular killing comes from clinical observation and mouse studies.

A book is a generic term afterall.

Test Me Already!

My eyes are just about to pop out of their sockets from reading and re-reading topics, questions and case scenarios. Knowing that the certification exam I am about to take entails facing a computer for 2-hour blocks to complete 5 (or is it just 4?) sets, I try to read topics through the on-line textbook (that thankfully, I still have access) to assimilate my eyes with this gruesome staring-at-the-screen-non-stop task. I can just imagine myself on Tuesday: eyes squinting in the cold computer room, awkwardly slouched in an attempt to be comfortable in the plastic chair, and reminding myself to read s - l - o - w - l - y so I don't overlook clues and make stupid mistakes.

So it's fitting to exercise my testing skills with a few questions. This one I got from my sis, and I'm surprised mine turned out so unlike hers. I say that because on the previous random occasions that I would take her suggested quizzes, I'd inevitably get exactly her result that I actually quit doing it.

You Are Sunset

Even though you still may be young, you already feel like you've accomplished a lot in life. And you feel free to pave your own path now, and you're not even sure where it will take you. Maybe you'll pursue higher education in a subject you enjoy - or travel the world for a few years. Either way, you approach life with a relaxed, open attitude. And that will take you far!

What Time Of Day Are You?

And nope, I'm not done. Here's one more. I love quizzes without a wrong answer (although the Monica Geller in me yells: But then you'll be just a loser?!). This was originally a total of 20 questions, but I deleted the last one because no one really tagged me with this meme.

1. How often do you blog?
When I feel like it. Sometimes after I’ve written something, I decide against posting it and would just save it in my journal.

2. Online Alias?
Way too many. I won't reveal my split personalities. (Insert an evil grin here).

3. Have you ever stood up for someone you hardly knew?
Definitely.

4. What do you do most often when you are bored?
Daydream about eloping with George Clooney.

5. When bathing, which do you wash first?
Hmmm, I think I'm bound to start with my head because that's what gets wet first when I turn on the shower (except of course I'd do the once in a blue moon bubble bath).

6. Have you ever been awake for 48 hours straight?
Yes, more than once. Not a pleasant experience and a ridiculous way to train future docs. It was during my neurosurgery rotation as a 4th year medical student. This was within weeks of starting purely clinical rotation, and one of the rare times that I actually thought: What the heck am I doing here?! (i.e., why in the world did I choose a profession that demands me to be up when most people are asleep?! Or to work during holidays? And weekends?!). It was here however that I fully understood that adrenalin can definitely keep you up, but that you can eventually end up with lapsed judgment.

7. What color looks best on you?
I never would have thought this – Red.

8. What’s your favorite alcoholic drink?
I don’t have one. But if you insist, I’ll have anything with Bailey’s or Kahlua. Or maybe just anything except beer.

9. Do you believe in heaven and hell as a real place that each of us will go to after death?
Yes.

10. Do you find that you have more online friends than offline friends?
Definitely not.

11. What was your favorite subject in school?
Math before college. Math the first year of college. Genetics and Histology late college (although the coolest subject I had was Field Biology! Where else do I get to be in class while outdoors – the mountains of Los Banos, and the beach and marshes of Puerto Gallera!). Gross Anatomy in freshman medschool.

12. Are you a perfectionist?
I consciously try not to be.

13. Do you spend more than you can afford?
Never. That’s why I can afford to be out of work for several months and not ask a penny from anyone. Even my spontaneous splurges have limits.

14. Is it better to have loved and lost than never to have loved before?
Didn't I say before I'm a sucker for the tragic?

15. Do you consider yourself creative?
Yes.

16. Do you give yourself the credit you deserve?
I consciously try to.

17. Do you donate time or money to charities?
Does donating hair count?

18. Have you recently done something that you’ve criticized others for doing?
Haven’t we all?

19. What’s on your mind right now?
Leishmaniasis in a traveller in Africa. K103 mutation confers cross resistance to all NNRTIs. H5N1 has higher mortality than SARS.

OK, ok, I better stop.

Monday Night

© Chicago Tribune

Ah, Da Bears are here to conquer. What a better way to show it by astounding the Arizona Cardinals in a dramatic comeback on Monday night. Nope, I wasn't really watching the game -- merely channel surfing during commercial breaks of Heroes, the new NBC show with similar premise as the X-Men but with characters having all normal human faces and only a handful of real normal people being aware of their existence. On one of those channel flips right after Hiro stopped time to let Ando win his bet on #26 in the roulette wheel, QB Rex Grossman fumbled and the Bears were behind by 14 early in the game. I thought, geez, and there's all this hoopla that the only question remaining about a Bears' repeat of 1986 is whether they would go defeatless.

But back to Heroes. So I remained awed at Heroes' storyline. Perhaps Clair's adoptive dad is in cahoots with Sylar, the loose killer who has superpowers (not exactly power to control another person's mind, but close)? And what's with the cop who could read minds? Is this a harbinger that he can eventually control minds? My favorites are the brothers Petrelli -- both with the gift of flight (hmmm, so the flying gene is perhaps X-linked? Maybe their mother is carrying the recessive gene!). I can't decide who I like better -- Nathan (the older one who's gorgeous, ambitious and -- ugh! -- a politician) or Peter (the one with the boyish charm, sentimental and reflective). After the show, I turned off the TV, as I had to complete reviewing the parasite images in the CDC website in preparation for my boards.

Later that night, imagine my astonishment when I turned to ESPN to see that the Bears won! Wow. Perhaps I can be a football fan. Tailgating seems like a fun thing to do.

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A vantage point from the Sear's Tower viewing deck: Da Bears home stadium, Soldier Field. Taken Spring 2006 when I finally made it there with friend Gerry in town.