Dramatic, much?

Okay, so things ARE very difficult financially at the moment. We know, as we are paying off a mortgage and living on one income, and just got a bill (in the thousands) from the tax office for something that our (soon-to-be-former) accountants forgot to include years ago back when I was actually working. That said, we are coping.

However, I have a sneaking suspicion that the media is feeding off this situation, whipping up panic just to gain more readers. This has to be the most dramatic headline that I have seen in a long time:

"Aussies reeling in financial doom"

Seriously, what?? Do headlines like this help or inform people? I think they just make everybody feel a hell of a lot worse. Sometimes I think some journalists should quit their day jobs and go back to writing scripts for bad action movies. We would all be happier.

Meme

MissG tagged me with a meme to list seven songs that I am into right now. To be honest, I don't generally do memes and I'm not that into songs, so I'm going to cheat a little and talk about seven kinds of music that I like at the moment. :D

1. EUROVISION! Yes, it is shameful, but I can't get that Shady Lady song out of my head. It is just so damn upbeat and catchy.

2. Muse, Black Holes and Revelations, the album. I just love the whole thing.

3. Tori Amos: her entire catalogue of works. I'm a big fan. Nobody else can say so much with words that barely make sense but sound good together.

4. The Presents: Apocalypso, the album. It is the best dance background music for driving or just doing anything, as you can zone out but listen at the same time.

5. Sarah Blasko: What The Sea Wants, The Sea Will Have, the album. So lovely and haunting.

6. The Prodigy: Firestarter. This one brings back memories and makes me feel old when they put the clip up on Rage as well as the year it was released.

7. Insight Meditation by Sharon Salzberg. Because it gets more play than the others, and it is my list and I can add it in. :P

Reason number 105432 I won't be watching the Olympics this year

This just makes me seethe.

"DISABLED people can be unsocial, stubborn, controlling, defensive and have a strong sense of inferiority, according to an official Beijing Olympics guide . . ."

Nice. Sometimes when I find my own country frustrating and ignorant, I look elsewhere and am relieved that I live where I do.

Dejavu . . .

Today marks my first official day of serious preparation for our mid-year exam. I am getting a shocking sense of dejavu. I suppose it is not surprising, considering that I have spent more than seven years of my life in full-time study up to this point in time.

This exam is nototious for being ridiculously difficult and has a traditional failure rate of close to 50%. In other words, of all the intelligent and hard-working people in the room, just under half of them will get a mark that it below what the medical school thinks should be a technical pass.

(Note for all of the non-medical school attendees out there - medical school marks do not correspond to excellence as a doctor. Some people who get average marks turn out to be excellent doctors, and some students who get extremely high marks on written examinations would not know how to talk to a patient if they were locked in a room with one. Of course, some people who fail should not be doctors, and some people who excell will save us all. But I digress.)

Of course, the school has the option of scaling the marks so most people technically pass and the rest just have to work extra hard to ensure that they pull up their mark at the end of the year. I have a sneaking suspicion that everything we go through in medical school is helping us prepare for when we are going through life as a trainee doctor. Another day, another hoop to jump through. Dejavu. ;)

I am just going to try my best. I'm surprisingly relaxed, which is great. Now off to review my notes. Wish me luck.

Have you ever wondered . . .

. . . if a shark fought a crocodile, who would win?

Well now we know, thanks to the Northern Territory news article, "Croc chomps on shark".

There is a life lesson in this somewhere. I'm still trying to work it out. ;)

Warning: Studying Medicine May Be Hazardous To Your Health

I have some theories that the medical course can do some very, very bad things to your head.

If you let it, it can convince you that you are bad at the things that are actually your strengths. Due to a rotten exam and some dodgy assessment items last year (if you have done med, you will know what I am on about) I was convinced that I had been deluding myself for a long time about being good at talking to people, and good at communication.

It may not seem it from this blog (in which, to be honest, I let my grammar be a little sloppy and relaxed at times), but verbal communication has always been one of my strongest points. For some reason, over the past year I have developed a distorted view, and come to believe that I am very average at the things at which I do well. Recently I have had a couple of experiences that proved to me in the strongest possible way that these new impressions were just plain wrong. (Now if I can only get good at those darn drugs. ;) ) Hooray!

Sometimes we have to go through tough phases in our lives in order to come out the other side and be stronger people. As a result of some recent turmoil, I now have a much clearer idea of who I am and what I am good at. The coming exams may tell me whatever they want to, but as long as I cover what I think is important and I pass, I don't really care. I know where I'm going and I'm happy, and that is what counts. :)

Greetings from the void

Many apologies for my absence - I was sucked into a big black vortex of swirling death (there may have been clams, I can't quite remember) and wasn't able to type anything.

I'm still here, still in the course and still loving studying medicine. The course has its down-sides and the job will be a bitch at times, but that is okay. I'm getting very good at focusing on the positives. :)

I will write more soon.