iLife '09, iPhoto, Medicine, Mathematics, and Rantings

iLife '09 is probably the coolest thing I've ever seen, thus far. I got it free! My friend has it, and passed the ORIGINAL CD to me. I installed it, and am in love with it.

I haven't really explored its full potential, but I only know one feature and I'm so amazed by it! It has a face recognition thingy on iPhoto.

iPhoto is an application which sorts out your pictures for you. With the iLife update, iPhoto recognises all the faces in each picture. Not only that, it matches the faces of the pictures with similar faces on other pictures. And if you tag the pictures, you get arrange the pictures in groups. So not only do I get to arrange my pictures according to events, it auto-sorts all my pictures according to the people in them.

How cool is that?

Moreover, it updated its Facebook uploading function. You can upload pictures right from iPhoto, that's right. And you can do all the tagging and stuff too. I think with the face recognition function now, tagging would be a breeze. I don't think I even need to tag. Haven't tried it yet, but sure it would be cool :)

All of you are gonna stone me now for talking about my Mac again. But I think it's really cool.

* * *

I am in that place again, when I feel like I am not suitable to do medicine. I don't entirely hate it, and I really love the prospects of the job, but the studying process can be a pain sometimes. I do kind of love learning about the human body and its functions, but not being able to understand a big chunk of it, and not being 'gifted' with memorising skills (is it even a gift, or sometimes you get by practice?), I once again feel like I might have picked the wrong path.

Yes, I really love Mathematics, and ever since my school days, Math is the only class I look forward to in the whole day. Maybe it's because I can grasp the subject well.

I'm just thinking what if I accepted the offer for MORSE. Maybe I then wouldn't be dreading classes everyday. Maybe I would be a high achiever, not needing to study (this hard now) and do well. Or maybe not.

I am almost struggling trying to keep up with my studies, and hoping to do well. And this is only hoping to do well in exams, it's not even hoping to equip myself with enough knowledge to make a good doctor.

I just found out today that IMU teaches the very bare minimum. The medical curriculum being an Integrated and Student-directed learning system, we learn much less compared to the spoon-fed traditional medical education system as practised in India.

And oh btw, I'm dropping my decision to apply to India because it is too much work, too much time. And I'll need to prepare for the entrance exam which is right after my EOS 2 (End Of Semester 2) exam, and they ask odd questions like botany, physics, chemistry, and mathematics.

And guess what, I forgot ALL my Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics.

Just two days ago, I was scribbling the PBL room's whiteboard. I tried to write out some formulas, and guess what? I forgot all the formulas! I can't even recall a single formula. Now, I am stuck with doing medicine. No way am I gonna excel doing Mathematics or Physics or whatever other related course now that I've forgotten everything.

That is a lot of ranting for one blog post.

But always look at the bright side of life: I updated my blog :)

It is 2.30am, and I'm still awake trying to figure out how to do my AIR Topic (AIR abbreviates for Assigned Independent Reading) which is a 300-500 word essay (I've yet to find out the word limit) about immunohistochemistry. Bombastic word? Yes I know, even I don't know what it meant until I've done reading up from the sources given.

I wanted to post some photos up. Here's the first ever run / race / marathon I've ever been to. It's not even a marathon, it's probably a quarter marathon. It was a 10km run around Bukit Jalil, organised by some Bukit Jalil running club for charity.

It was last Sunday. We were supposed to meet at IMU at 5.45am, the Race Coordinator of the Infinity Milers (a running and mountain climbing club in IMU) called me at 6am, and only then I woke up =P

I got 292nd place, haha, how awesome is that? That is super low. And I clocked in 1 hour and 17 minutes. I ran all the way without stopping, quite a huge achievement for me. I was talking to Jeremy three quarters of the way. Thanks Jeremy for being my pacesetter, hope I didn't slow you down too much! The qualifying time was 1 hour 45 minutes, so I completed the run half an hour before time.

The run was torturous, especially towards the end. We went up two steep slopes, and many smaller ones, and the last 2km was killing.

In the end, I survived and completed the run without stopping to walk!

After the run, I rushed home to shower and had another marathon at church. Not a running marathon, but was in church from 10.30am-8.30pm. I went home and crashed!

But after the run, I felt so healthy. I felt the rush of endorphins, which felt pretty darn good. I do kinda enjoy running, because when I run, I release stress. And when I run, I don't have anything to do, so I started thinking of life, faith, and God.

Anyway, what I wanted to show you all was these super awesome pictures.

This is the team from IMU / Infinity Milers holding up the Infinity Milers sign after the race

Some of my batchmates holding up a lala pose. Do you see what I see? Don't see it? Let's zoom it in


Yeah, it is a rainbow on the fountain. It appears to me that you can see it every morning at that position, looks really cool, eh?

I'll post up pictures and stories about orientation soon. It is so awesome, I have to write a little about it.

But till then, I'll go back to studying :(

Orientation is over. And I had an awesomely good time.

The past two weeks have been a study-less time, due to orientation. Been spending all my time after class with my orientation group. It was rather a huge sacrifice, especially to my studying plans.

Overall, it was a great experience. I got to get close to my juniors, and they're really great people. I will definitely miss those times sitting with them as they plan for their activities, and make props till past midnight, and being ragged together with them.

Orientation was tiring, definitely, having not enough time to sleep; and having have to squeeze out all my brain juice to help them think of a plot for the various dramas (which kind of failed because I am not a very creative drama person). Yeah, I kinda hated those brainstorming sessions, but I enjoyed spending time with them and going out for meals together, and watching movies, and being ragged together.

Yes, I actually enjoyed being ragged and having my shirt soaked in chicken intestine water, and commando crawling in a muddy field after rain, and breaking eggs over my shoulder (which went into my eye) on a hot sunny day capable of turning it into a yummy mata kerbau, and duck walking while singing Negaraku, and running around 'the globe' 11 times, and the list goes on. It was really fun.

I actually miss you guys, Group 12! I don't wanna go back to studying.

Now, it's back to reality. It's back to the fact that half my semester is gone and it is 7 weeks to my exams, of which I have not started revising at all. Microbiology is sufficient to kill me. The only bacteria I know is Traponema pallidum which causes syphilis. Okay, I do know others also. But... =((

Today IS a holiday, and I was supposed to complete my PBL and start on AIR topic, of which I failed to touch either.

I went to check on a university which I have been looking to apply to since A Levels, and found out that application is open.

Should I apply? Should I not?

I didn't apply last time because I missed the dateline, and besides the entrance exams and interview clashed with my A Level exams.

The university I am looking at is in India, and it is one of the top university in India; and is very well known across the medical world. The full cost of study fees and accommodation is less than RM15,000. (What?! You must be kidding me, only RM15,000 for the top university in India?? Yes, no kidding)

Only thing is competition to get a place is extremely stiff, there are only 7 places for the category I am applying and that includes all unsponsored Indians and foreigners.

Application is extremely tedious, I have to submit a lot of forms and apply for a lot of forms. Application to the university is primarily targetted to local Indians, so since I didn't go through their secondary education I have a lot of forms to clear. I have to run up and down the Indian embassy, and send out my documents to India.

Will it be worth the trouble for that 7 almost impossible places to get?

I've got one month to do all those, and I need to juggle that with studying and other responsibilities. God help me!