![[dr. bob]](/dr-bob-sm.gif)
Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 37 to 61 of 61. Go back in thread:
Posted by sigismund on November 1, 2018, at 15:58:30
In reply to Re: The Witch King of Angmar, posted by alexandra_k on November 1, 2018, at 14:40:14
Cuttlefish have beautiful eyes.
Posted by alexandra_k on November 2, 2018, at 20:34:44
In reply to Re: The Witch King of Angmar, posted by sigismund on November 1, 2018, at 15:58:30
oh, my.
i'd only ever seen them in bird cages all white and chalky.
now i'm wondering how the two are related...
birds impress me. i know many people are impressed by octopusses but birds impress me. i think they know rather a lot more than they let on. and i think my ears can't hear the half of what they have to say (in that i can't hear some german sounds kind of a way).
a very pretty voiced bird has made a nest (i think) in the gutter right outside my bedroom window. she (i'm guessing) chatters away. i think maybe she can hear me and when i talk to her about how pretty she sounds she gets louder sometimes... perhaps...
i worry about the gutter a little, but more worry she might get washed away in a rainstorm...
some guy came here earlier to check a bunch of things... mostly it was to check the temperature of my hot water after the power company cut power to my hot water cylander it a predetermined number of hours before (i bet). i bet. if you are going to experiment with such things you probably do it to the state houses where people who live in them are required to let in 'health and safety' inspectors -- right?
i saw his job description was to check the gutters.
i specifically asked him if he needed a hand.
he took the temperature of my water and made a nod to window latches and ran away.
f*ck*ng farce of a country.
cheep.
Posted by sigismund on November 3, 2018, at 13:10:36
In reply to Re: The Witch King of Angmar, posted by alexandra_k on November 2, 2018, at 20:34:44
Anything humans say about animals is full of conflict of interest.
I went mad 30 years ago and planted thousands of trees. When you do this you live to regret it. (It's like cooking,,,,,you never enjoy the food you cook as much as others do.) But new birds are appearing. You of course know that colours are gifted to us by our DNA coincidental with wavelengths. Some of these birds are hallucinatory delights. It is only that we are half dead that we can't see. A little boy was staying, maybe 5? He went outside in the morning and rolled around on the grass, looking at the blue sky and all the greens and said 'I LOVE IT! I LOVE IT!'
That's a good age. With adults I kinda fear I'll end up in an argument about Jordan Peterson, which no amount of alcohol will render painless. Kids just before they can talk. Animals too.
They are related because the white cuttlefish you see is the shell converted into (something like?) a backbone. I didn't eat that cuttlefish. I have learned how to cook squid.
Posted by sigismund on November 3, 2018, at 13:21:50
In reply to Re: The Witch King of Angmar, posted by sigismund on November 3, 2018, at 13:10:36
Alex, you should know about this.
As well as the threat of ending up on Jordan Peterson, the other one is ending up on cultural Marxism.
What do they mean? Adorno, Frankfurt School, Gramsci? Or are they taking about identity politics. I have guessed it is the last. (Possible?) Seperate toilets for whomever it is?
There are a lot of older men who wish to feel young again. That's fine, but ummm, not around me please. But I'm not talking about sex.
Similar to the bloke in Being There, I like to sleep.
Posted by sigismund on November 4, 2018, at 4:44:40
In reply to Re: The Witch King of Angmar, posted by sigismund on November 3, 2018, at 13:21:50
One cannot sufficiently despise all of this. Nietzsche
Posted by alexandra_k on November 4, 2018, at 15:19:57
In reply to Re: The Witch King of Angmar, posted by sigismund on November 3, 2018, at 13:21:50
Yeah, there are a lot of men who wish to be young again. Not about sex, particularly, I get that. I think it is because young guys often feel 9 foot tall and bulletproof, whether they are, or not. Most young guys at the gym often think their are amazing speciments, whether they are, ot not. It's a hormonal profile, or something. How it must feel... That sense of surety and confidence. Of course it means young guys can be really rather intolerable (isn't there someone elses backyard, uh, war you can go play in, someplace else, for a while, and come back later when you have some of that cockiness kicked out of you??)...
Of course that's rather extreme, and I know there are exceptions... But most guys seem to genuniely miss that time of their lives, yeah. I think that was a huge part of the older guys in the gym, thing. And a huge part of the quest... With substances and the like in the attempt to recreate it.
I went to a rather good talk, a while back... The testerone receptor lady... She did one more on start-ups for the science students, and one that was a bit more... Communications... For the Med people... The Med people... Includes the older people in the community with an interest. And frailty... Well... Yeah, people are willing to try most things (except the obvious one of hiring someone who actually knows what they are doing to help them become more mobile and stronger -- prefering to believe there's actually nothing at all that they can *do* but wait for the magical pill that other people are actually going to successfully manage to negotiate their access to (guffaw).
Posted by alexandra_k on November 4, 2018, at 15:27:44
In reply to Re: The Witch King of Angmar, posted by alexandra_k on November 4, 2018, at 15:19:57
Ah... It was about the substances that she managed to find in various food and suppliments that she purchased. Using the test to detect synthetic testosterone... Because it's a banned substance, you see. She found it in a variety of suppliments. From the likely suspects of athletic suppliments (from websites where one might be fairly correct in thinking people ordering from there would be pleased about this) to things like... Deer velvit or whatever. Stuff targeting old people.
The concern is that athletes could be taking this stuff and end up testing positive and losing their athletic scholarships / places on Olympic teams and so on.
Australia has a 'no excuses' drug policy. So that means athletes need to be careful to not eat anything that may be contaminated because they can't plead ignorance.
New Zealand does not. That means that there there no structures in New Zealand to make it really considered awful horrible comtemptable for coaches or for suppliment companies or whatever to put really rather hefty doses in our food products in order to see what happens to the team (or whatever)... And the athletes can just play dumb as they are... The coaches can reccommmend suppliments and the like. That doesnt' happen in Australia everyone is told it is their own personal responsibility to be clean (and so avoid anything that might be contaminated)...
Anyway... She found quite a lot of contamination in our processed food.
I think she's still kicking around...
I have been wondering recently if our 'strong women' phenomenon (particularly Waikato) is something to do with the dairy there. Hormonal. The estrogens or whatever to keep the cows persistently lactating. I don't know if it... In the water supply, or maybe in the milk itself or, I don't know... I wonder if it is... Emasculating, in some way. Or... I don't know.... But I suspect it is something like this...
Posted by alexandra_k on November 4, 2018, at 16:01:06
In reply to Re: The Witch King of Angmar, posted by alexandra_k on November 4, 2018, at 15:27:44
There was a NZ team that was tested positive. Their defence was that they were all taking a particular suppliment purchased over the internet (for 'joint health' or something respectable sounding) on their coaches reccommendation.
I don't remember what happened. Probably nothing. Because everybody plead ignorance about the situation.
But that situation would never have arisen in Australia. Firstly, the coaches would not have reccommended that the athletes take anything that might potentially be contamminated (anything that wasn't reccommended by the Australian Sports Commission, for example). Secondly, the athletes would have been told to not take anything that might potentially be contamminated.
Idiocy is just our mask for sociopathy. I'm reallly starting to see why it is in certain peoples interest to keep as many other people as possible brain damaged / alcohol fetal effects if not full on syndrome / pre-term oxygen deprived... And so on...
I found some stuff about how... Williams Syndrome was thought to be epidemic, here. Now... What is considered within 'normal' range is very liberal, indeed. It would be socially inappropriate (worthy of being murdered in your sleep) to point out how... Uh.... Quite a lot of people (often in rather important positions)... Don't appear to be entirely all there in their cognive functioning...
There is stuff about being able to function fairly well on surprisingly little brain. Depending on where things were at to start with, I guess. If you were at the higher functioning end of the spectrum you can lose really rather a lot of your functioning before anybody (who didn't know you) would know... The Ethics people, here... It's becoming obvious such that nobody can deny but there's been a degenerative thing going on with the people in charge of it for quite a while, now. I'm talking over a period of years and years and years. I know precisely what the thinking would have been : Give them to the Arts, it will take years and years and years and years and years for any of them to even notice something is going on and then social norms will prevent any of them for saying / doing anything about that for years and years and years and years and years and years more still.
I was just contacted to say my application wasn't complete (they want disability information). My application says that I have a disability, you see. So now they will likely harrass me, periodically for information about it and will likely discriminate against me in virtue of that. There's no undoing. I think they can note on my file that I've requested I not be the target of 'special treatment' but that doesn't mean I'm not going to get it.
Sigh.
I think it means that (if I get an interview) I won't get a 'special' interview. Which is to say I won't get a Maaori political person with the power to 'definite no' me (it seems less racist when Maaori are the ones who get to 'definite no' their own people). And why not let them be the head of equity with the power to 'definite no' anyone seen as a threat to their own people, too. Or just people they percieve to be easy targets.
I can't forgive them for what they did to me, already, last time. Failing me for writing substandard essays because they didn't know what I was talking about because they appointed people with very little brain. That is the situation there. I hope I can fly under the radar...
I think I need to look to trying to publish in some Ethics journals, or something... I've started looking around. There are some *good* ones. Yeah.
I strongly suspect the DOI is just for ease of access. At the end of the day a good piece in something good is the way to go... I'm sure there are many people willing to produce something easy for something bad because of the impact factor or whatever... I think the New Zealand Medical Journal has student pages for precisely this end... I'm pretty certain they would not publish anything from me.. There's a hierarchy thing and I would only be allowed to publish something sufficiently bad that made 'superiors' appear sufficiently good. And that gets mighty hard when you read what 'superiors' actually have to say, a lot of the time.
I need to remember the higher up you go... The better I tend to find the people. And the more they seem to like me. And value me for the things I value in myself. It's the lowest level people who are always the hardest to deal / cope with. Largely because they don't know it when they see it so there's no showing them. I'm sorry they don't have good leaders who enforce good things so their lives are better (for their legitimate ends) but they are only interested in keeping me as their slave so there's nothing much I can do around here...
It is sad... When I first came back here I did try and make friends... But over the years I haven't managed to find people... Sufficiently like me. I really thought I would find more people like me... I didn't realise how rare I was... In these parts... People are better at keeping their heads down.
It's the same reason, isn't it, as to why ward rounds need to be done at 5am or 5.30am. The specialist rounds. Because the only people there, doing the rounds at that time, are the people who are (more likely to be) there for the right reasons. Everyones asleep so the people doing it can hear themselves think and maybe even have a mature conversation about the situation. If you go at another time then you'll get stuck yak yak yakking to the patient and the patients family and friends and relations and the day time staff and... You need to get it done before the world starts to wake up. Like swim training. Or Weightlifting etc.
That just makes living really hard. BEcause ghettos are all about party party party in the ghetto. Whether it is abuot the ghetto being unruly or whether it is about people intentionally doing it in order to drive up property prices everywehre else... And the like... But you need to be able to get to reliable sleep early in order to get yourself up and functional that time of the morning.
I am concerned about accommodation.
There is accommodation. But people always see that I'm a not unattractive female and there's simply no way that some guy isn't going to be sniffing around (making things unbearable for other people)... That's basically the thing. Why it is that I get locked out. People assume I'm the front for some guy fresh out of jail, or similar. Or that there will be a stream of them... And so on... Because of the considerable pressure that Work and Income and the like put on people that actually makes it the case that they would be right about 99 per cent of the time. I mean... In my own life... That's what happened to a lady I actually lived with. X bodyfriend decided to murder her one day because she didn't want to see him anymore. I guess it is like (at some point) when you are male you are expected to have wife and kids otherwise people think you might be unruly in your nest (so locked out of certain neighbourhoods too). I guess because kids need to sleep a lot... So peaceful. That's the idea...
Anyway...
Posted by sigismund on November 4, 2018, at 17:26:00
In reply to Re: The Witch King of Angmar, posted by alexandra_k on November 4, 2018, at 15:27:44
Regardless, just let them take anything. The olympics? Have they no shame at all? Why not spend the money on community playfields? Because all we care about is success, winners and losers.
Posted by sigismund on November 4, 2018, at 17:55:10
In reply to Re: The Witch King of Angmar » alexandra_k, posted by sigismund on November 4, 2018, at 17:26:00
A friend wrote me recently.....the next Hitler will be an incel from Ohio. At leat we'll be medicated and mediated, no need to see into their eyes.
What's this incel business anyway?
The fun thing about Jordan Peterson for me was when he said that women wearing lipstick looked as if they were sexually aroused (and so?) and therefore (somehow) it was unfair (why?) to men who might like workplace equality (why not big codpieces?) and something something something . F*ck me.
FWIW I think a lot of makeup is llamativo, but hell, if men are pretending to be men, is this the best they can do?
Posted by alexandra_k on November 5, 2018, at 0:01:08
In reply to Re: The Witch King of Angmar, posted by sigismund on November 4, 2018, at 17:55:10
I think that informed consent is probably the way to go...
I mean, cheating is only an issue when it comes to sport.
We do have special duty to children and minors (and people under our care e.g., athletic teams)...
I do have sympathy for the notion of informed consent when it comes to older guys, particularly...
The blurry lines between low end of normal and deficient...
there are concerns about health effects (e.g., if you take 'suppliments' to grow your muscle indiscriminately because you don't actually plan to use it to help you recover but more to do all the work for you) then your heart muscle will also tend to grow which puts you at risk of heart problems...
To weigh pros and cons...We don't have informed consent for... Anything... Here. Just a culture of bullies.
I might be able to find an ethics journal that debates some interesting (according to me) cases...
Leave the people her to their 'controversies' (aka: no brainers).
Jordan Peterson? What about him? I don't know of him... What are you thinking?
Posted by sigismund on November 5, 2018, at 2:37:03
In reply to Re: The Witch King of Angmar, posted by alexandra_k on November 5, 2018, at 0:01:08
Oh, I had a couple of conversations and watched the Majority Report. He is just irritating to me.
Posted by alexandra_k on November 5, 2018, at 14:55:08
In reply to Re: The Witch King of Angmar, posted by sigismund on November 5, 2018, at 2:37:03
I started watching him on something, and he was irritating to me, too. 'Grow up'. Mmm, kay, now I feel all enlightened.
I got some USMLE study prep and I feel like I have a much better idea of what people have been trying to teach me, now. I always did feel like it was a dim copy of... I couldn't figure quite what.
The tables for microbiology that classifies the organisms in useful ways (the sort of activity we were supposed to do ourselves for 'homework' and then would be tested on later -- and so so much time was wasted, trying to seek out accurate information and learning inaccurate information). clear and distinct epidemiology statements with clear and sensible notation...
my mother helped my brother through his uni education so he didn't need to take out loans. i didn't ask her to help me. i wasn't speaking with her, at the time i went to uni. but i have told her that some of this is going to cost a bit... she said something about my inheritence... so... well... i changed the subject... but there we go... she has expressed concern about my age. i am not sure how i feel about it. i think there is nothing i can do about it. there are times when they meet with you so i guess i need to make sure i stay fit and healthy looking, but they aren't officially allowed to discriminate against you on the basis of (though i'm sure that won't stop them). student visas don't seem to be age restricted. work visas may be... charities are probably different... i don't know. i won't worry on it... Sal Khan said something useful... He said that money wasn't about things it was about experiences. It was about freedom to have the experiences you want to have. I want to walk this path. Yeah. So that makes the age thing irrelevant.
There was some clip thing I saw about some guy who was early 40s who just got matched to Plastics someplace in California... Don't get me wrong, I'm sure he was plenty rich (and also a guy), but, there you go...
so, yeah.. c'mon entry... i really am ready to go...
it is annoying, honestly, that the schools aren't better at teaching. that the teachers don't take it upon themselves to convey the content in the simplest way possible i mean. people are just... often unnecessarily confusing. like, intentionally withholding the information you are supposed to learn, confusing. i guess because they never bothered to learn it, themselves. and people always want to try and teach you something that is easier for them. typically about their own research...
anyway... i was feeling before that things felt difficult because it was hard to know what you were supposed to be learning... i guess, now, i have some idea of what that aim is. and insofar as the kids are being rewarded for stuff that was not taught to them let us hope that it was USMLE study prep content.
I won't say anything... I mean... I checked out the libraries and they only have, like, 1 copy of the 2018 step one First Aid book... There isn't even one on desk reserve. I mean, the copy is currently on loan - don't get me wrong - but it clearly isn't something that they market the hell out of as the way to go (the way it is front stage in the US). I see we can withold our results from the Uni. That's probably the way to go. Otherwise there' sthe possibility that they try and give the kids with high USMLE scores low grades to try and keep them enslaved, here. That wouldn't surprise me. I guess that's why withholding grades is an option. I wonder how many people take the tests in NZ... I wonder when they end up taking them... I'm thinking earlier is better than later... End year 3... I think the study prep books would have helped get me through first year, even. The epidemiology list, particularly, is looking really rather a lot like the list I ended up coming up with, myself. I'm cross, because it would have saved me time (and I would have learned things better) if I had have had the book and learned from that rather than trying to extract hte relevant content (with all the errors that go into that) the way that I did. Of course I understand re-writing in my own words is useful. But I can write out the book myself... I don't need to f*ck*ng derive the book myself... And as for it making more sense in my own words, actually, the words are pretty sensicle. I feel like... Something approximating generations of effort has gone into making the book as clear and distict as people could and they actually ended up with something better than what my mind could do over the course of a couple years.
I guess some people don't know it when they see it...
Whatever...
Sigh.
Posted by alexandra_k on November 5, 2018, at 15:37:31
In reply to Re: The Witch King of Angmar, posted by alexandra_k on November 5, 2018, at 14:55:08
And it's sad because I have some really good memories of studying for Psychology, as an undergrad. Started out where I was helping someone who wanted to study with me. I'd already indepenently learned most of it, so basically, I ended up tutoring him. So I got to show him all the cognitive tricks I used to learn the content and the way I'd rearranged it and so on... We both came out with terrific grades. Kept studying together the next year... He started studying independently, as well, and ended up taking to stuff that was harder for me and so on... We really helped each other through to keep out terrific grades across the range of psychology courses. And then other people (who did alright but a bit worse) who didn't put as much of their independent time in, but kept the group study sessions fun and kept us motived and we learned from them too, yeah.
So when I went back for pre-med I thought I was going to find adult students like that. People who were highly motivated to be high achievers and people who I would be able to work with. But, instead, I found a series of people who were more willing to talk the talk than walk the walk on any of the study... I didn't find people who knew it when they saw it when it came to ways to learn... I didn't find people offering much in the way of those techniques themselves... The formal tutorials were all repetition repetition repetition of words and phrases... To suck all that is living and good...
Maybe if I actually get into Med I'll meet people, again, who are motivated and we can get some group study going on... From what I've heard group study is mostly... People don't know what the hell the project is. They don't know what they are supposed to be learning because lecturing style is often doing a big brain dump of a years worth of content in a lecture, or whatever. Reading lists.
I kinda feel like the USMLE isn't a big secret - right? I mean, everyone in the US and Canada is studying for it. The point of the test and the point of the curriculum is to get people workign through a body of knowledge / content... Only... I think that will be low key, here. It's part of the whole 'there's two ways to get ahead and kicking other people back is a viable strategy'. The thought being that the less people who know to study for it, the better ones own personal chances.
Only, the less people who know to study for it, the more people are wasting time doing other things... And that makes it harder to get a group of people you can study productively with.
I mean... Everyone in the US is on the same page with it, but people still make better or worse use of the study material they've got.
Otherwise... It's like the freaking law students ripping pages out of the statute books so other people can't find the relevant precedent for their (competitive) essays.
To the detriment of the entire law school
...
Something something about 'get with the program'.
Of course I know it's about cheap slave labour. That's what they are going for. But the thing is: If you want people to want to stay for PGY1 and PGY2 and beyond then... You really need to listen to them / treat them better.
But they won't.
Posted by alexandra_k on November 5, 2018, at 15:44:58
In reply to Re: The Witch King of Angmar, posted by alexandra_k on November 5, 2018, at 15:37:31
Anyway.. We will see.
I really hope I do get to do this. And I really do hope that I do get to meeet people 'like me'. Namely, mature students (actually I don't care -- but younger students may be more inclined to try and balance social lives and veer off course with that) who are highly motivated (and a bit bright) to work with for mutual benefit.
I don't see how things are going to work otherwise, actually. Given how we need to do things like take blood pressure and listen to hearts and so on...
I just really don't understand why I haven't found mature students to work with, particularly, since returning, here.
I know the guy I was working with before was pretty unique... But I thought there were more like us...
Fingers crossed there will be. Given the whole 'you have to have a herd to appear in public' and even to have a 'private' study space on campus... And then you want to try and lighten the financial load on hotel rooms and...
C'mon NZ. Done with wasting my life, yet?
Posted by alexandra_k on November 5, 2018, at 18:50:48
In reply to Re: The Witch King of Angmar, posted by alexandra_k on November 5, 2018, at 15:44:58
And I tried shopping from two supermarkets. There is this thing they do. The trigger seems to be someone is engaging in rational deliberation. Someone is reading labels for ingredients or trying to do price comparisons.
Then the store starts blearing some advertisement to try and interrupt the cognitive processing so the person will grab the $10 toothpaste instead of the $2 toothpaste because the packaging is prettier or the shelf placement was more convenient or...
So, when the store advertising starts up I stop deliberating and wait for it to finish. The way you do when someone decides to yap yap yap yap at you...
Only... It doesn't really seem to.
So... I put my items back and leave the store.
I wonder how long it will take for the store to learn that if it wants me to buy things then it will need to not blast advertising at me.
I expect I'd starve to death first.
Posted by beckett2 on November 5, 2018, at 18:59:26
In reply to Re: The Witch King of Angmar, posted by sigismund on November 4, 2018, at 17:55:10
> A friend wrote me recently.....the next Hitler will be an incel from Ohio. At leat we'll be medicated and mediated, no need to see into their eyes.
>
> What's this incel business anyway?
>
> The fun thing about Jordan Peterson for me was when he said that women wearing lipstick looked as if they were sexually aroused (and so?) and therefore (somehow) it was unfair (why?) to men who might like workplace equality (why not big codpieces?) and something something something . F*ck me.
>
> FWIW I think a lot of makeup is llamativo, but hell, if men are pretending to be men, is this the best they can do?I saw him talk about the make-up thing. Why are men infantilized? Like they cannot control their impulses. Very annoying, his 1970's theory of the sexes and reverse engineering the hunter/gatherer schtick.
Idk about hitler, but the incels are a trump voting block for sure.
Posted by alexandra_k on November 5, 2018, at 19:02:10
In reply to Re: The Witch King of Angmar, posted by alexandra_k on November 5, 2018, at 18:50:48
Apparently the one and only USMLE testing centre in New Zealand is noisy. It is located in this building with ESL teaching and the noise carries around the building. Of course it does.
Posted by beckett2 on November 5, 2018, at 19:02:25
In reply to Re: The Witch King of Angmar, posted by alexandra_k on November 5, 2018, at 15:37:31
>It's like the freaking law students ripping pages out of the statute books so other people can't find the relevant precedent for their (competitive) essays.
To the detriment of the entire law school
That's being done on a government wide scale here.
Posted by beckett2 on November 5, 2018, at 19:04:02
In reply to Re: The Witch King of Angmar, posted by alexandra_k on November 5, 2018, at 19:02:10
Try not to worry about your age and such. Tell those voices to bugger off (or f*ck off as we say here).
Posted by alexandra_k on November 5, 2018, at 20:40:31
In reply to Re: The Witch King of Angmar » alexandra_k, posted by beckett2 on November 5, 2018, at 19:04:02
> Try not to worry about your age and such. Tell those voices to bugger off (or f*ck off as we say here).
Thanks, Beckett. I'll do that.
And I think I'll go swimming, again, because that was good work, for me. And because my feet are getting much more... Responsive...
I can even do some exercising on the side of the pool, I think. There are mats for the diving kids. They do forwards and backwards rolls and handstands and such. I don't see any reason why I can't do bodyweight stuff like that on the side of the pool when a club team / group isn't using the space. There might even be gym balls and the like in the little area around the other side of the pool... They skip rope poolside, too.
______
I am in a bit of a grump...
It is hard waiting to hear about the next stuff... Whether I get an interview or not... Then whether my thesis has been accepted or not...
I feel really pleased with myself (in a happy-proud rather than a smugly-satisfied) way that I've finally looked into things more...
I get this idea that I don't want to get started too early or I'll jinx things, somehow. So I'd been putting off looking into the study / registration / training requirements of different countries...
But I see that putting things off... Is really not the way to go. That you really have to be very pro-active, indeed, because everything that can possibly work to delay you and put you off and so on... Will do so. I really did think that you just did 2 post-grad years here before applying for stuff. And I really did think that the US was not an option at all. I see it is... It's just that you need to get started years and years and years in advance... And that there is a financial investment to it, too, to the tune of thousands of dollars over multiple years for tests and access to test banks...
Anyway... Now I know. A bit more. Enough to start keeping a folder so it's easy to keep up with changes from year to year to year. Make sure I don't miss any deadlines.
I won't go telling everyone... But I'll surely be looking to make friends, yeah.
Not least because of this whole 'informed consent' thing... And because I am really most worried about clinical skills. They want to see you obtain consent for an exam. Not... Expectantly bully. I bet. It's gonna be hard trying to get that line... Especially when it's not likely to be rewarded / appreciated, here...
Posted by beckett2 on November 5, 2018, at 21:10:39
In reply to Re: The Witch King of Angmar, posted by alexandra_k on November 5, 2018, at 20:40:31
I didn't realize you turned your thesis in. Or maybe I'm forgetful :/ My fingers are crossed for you!
Education is waaaay to expensive here. Just saying, even though I just told you to bugger off the critics :P
Sorry about the gym situation btw. Gym's can have an odd vibe. Uptight? But I'm not a gym person, so much for my judgement then.
Posted by alexandra_k on November 5, 2018, at 21:32:48
In reply to Re: The Witch King of Angmar » alexandra_k, posted by beckett2 on November 5, 2018, at 21:10:39
> I didn't realize you turned your thesis in.
Yes, I did. Not PhD. MPhil. It is a one year degree, by points value, but they try and drag it out for one and a half years... Actually they just try and drag all the degrees out for as long as humanly possible... Actually, uh, they didn't let me get started until May and I was clear about needing to be able to say it had been accepted by December 7 and they said it was standard to take 3 months to grade it... So... I got it in on time, but everyone was in a state of denial about how I did it in, uh, less than 6 months... Lol. I really can haul *ss when required.
> My fingers are crossed for you!Thank you. My fingers are crossed for me, too. It is pass or fail -- no grade. Actually... There are different varieties of 'revise and resubmit' or 'make minor changes and resubmit' that they could do... I am hoping they will 'accept with minor changes' and then I'll be able to make those changes, record the change as having been made, and get the thing submitted in hard copy ASAP for final acceptance by December 7. Fingers crossed. Othewise... They've managed to delay me for (yet another) year...
> Education is waaaay to expensive here. Just saying, even though I just told you to bugger off the critics :P
Education is waaaaay to expensive everywhere. It is a hard thing. Our degree is the cheapest degree (once you've done your currency conversion) in the English Speaking World -- so I don't suppose I have any right to compare how well our degrees prepare us for graduate study overseas. I suppose it is only fair that people who work hard enough to get into / pay more fees to get into certain elite institutions have a higher quality education because of it...
I mean... You do want to reward people for choosing to invest in better education... And for working harder to get to go to certain institutions for better education... Genuinely. I do believe that. But it is hard when people who would choose to do that with money (if only they had money) or who would work hard to earn it with their time (if only they had access to the work they were supposed to be getting on with in their time)...
Anyway... I do see elements of justice / fairness.
I appreciate that the match is (in theory anyway) to work out for the benefit of more of the students. That is nice. That the students welfare is primary and maximising that for more students.
There is also the UK system... Which doesn't seem to have as much in the way of courses and so on to help you prepare... But the flip side of that is that studying for it doesn't have as much to teach you. If that makes sense.
The STEP thing actually looks pretty good, to me. It looks like nearly everyone purchases first aid and world bank questions. Then you have whatever reccommended texts seem to help you (individual variation). Then you have... Well... There are live-in courses for people who don't work well without people standing over them with whips (I jest). There are articles about how you don't seem to get what you pay for beyond the first couple standard things... So... It's up to you. I feel... Informed. Like it is worth investing in having a standardised curriculum. I mean, without it... You are left with whatever your institution provides. And the quality of that will vary. We simply don't have expertise in certain areas so all our students will be left straggling up that part of the curriculum themselves. I'm sure that doesn't happen to students in Ivy League Schools.. But then, that's what they pay for / have earned with eaerning their scholarships to go to that school. It looks like IMG's get around 25% of the places. They compete with each other rather than against US students. We can't compare because our school curriculums don't provide us with comparable teaching / instruction. In Auckland... Accommodation will be a very real struggle for most of our students. THey don't get school breakfasts or lunches or dinners after first year. They have to fend for themselves. That takes time... And typically forced into sharing with others and so now problems (and time) for household chores while they are studying.
> Sorry about the gym situation btw. Gym's can have an odd vibe. Uptight? But I'm not a gym person, so much for my judgement then.
Thanks. Uptight... Maybe. There is a concern about things being unruly, sometimes. And a concern, I guess, that if some kids see me dump the weights controlled they will dump the weights loudly for the attention and things will escalate so people are throwing things around... And that might be a very real possibility. It just means that I can't do my thing in public. Yeah. And yeah, I guess that's just the way that that is.
A barbell probably won't be on the cards for a while... I'll have to get more into body weight stuff.
I'm hoping that I can transfer to stay here because I have a quiet house here. I don't know where I'd end up / what I'd end up in if I have to move... On the other hand... I suppose I could end up better off with the move. I know some people there, but less... MOre international there... But also more Maaori... Not sure that will be good for me... They do not understand their informed consents. That makes it hard to practice medicine internationally in developed nations...
Posted by alexandra_k on November 5, 2018, at 21:57:25
In reply to Re: The Witch King of Angmar, posted by alexandra_k on November 5, 2018, at 21:32:48
It's just so nice to feel there's something of a standard curriculum.
I got a bunch of books... Ones that were reccommended for surgical sciences candidates in Australia. Because I could see that they were good books with quality information. The trouble is that there is too much information, though. And Robbins Pathology is confusing, too. I mean... At times the pictures conflict with the text (e.g., some of the cancer stuff the diagrams number headings differently from the text headings or alter the text headings in ways that don't sound strictly synonymous). That sort of thing adds to the cognitive load and... It's confusing and time consuming and... Demoralising. Honestly.
The First Aid book (I only have an old copy at present but I'll get the newest) is SIMPLE. Deceptively so, I know. But you are supposed to know it back to front and inside out and to then apply it to cases (which is a skill in itself). But it's clear with a finite amount of information that makes it... Seem simple. Manageable. It seems like working will pay off. It seems like you can tick off progress of a block you learned that now you know and you didn't know it before. Encouraging. Rewarding.
Yeah.
Posted by alexandra_k on November 5, 2018, at 21:58:40
In reply to Re: The Witch King of Angmar, posted by alexandra_k on November 5, 2018, at 21:57:25
Ah... I meant to say that what they are saying about study techniques. Sure. Preaching to the choir. That's what I learned in psychology, too. But that... Review books are what you want. Not textbooks. Review books. Yeah.
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