shifting dullness

yesterday, a friend and i were lingering in the corridor discussing whether or not we should just go home (it was ~2:15pm) or try to see another patient, when a reg came up to us and said, "excuse me, are you students?". a quick glance around revealed to me that i was standing close to the fire doors. i casually moved over, then glanced back to see if i was still in trouble. he was still looking at us.

"uh, yes..?"

"if you have time, i need some assistance a procedure. can you help me?" er, yes! hello! so we rushed off. i'm not really sure what he meant by assistance, because all he really needed me to do was open for him when he was gowned up, but he talked us through the procedure (an ascitic tap), and let us examine the patient for shifting dullness.

it was pretty cool, but what i really wanted to learn was how to secure a drain (with sutures), and to my great disappointment, medical registrars secure them with a combination of gauze and tegaderm. i'm not kidding. it was just like, stick stick stick stick stick "okay it's not stitched in so try not to move!"

it's a little bit strange that for the past month of my respiratory term there has been no pleural tap in sight, but a passing reg led to an ascitic tap. i still think a chest drain would be cooler, though. apparently there was one this morning- my reg later said "oh, i should have called you".

thanks. you should have!!!

owl city

I've noticed that quite a few of my Christian male friends like Taylor Swift, seemingly irregardless of their individual musical preferences. I nominate Adam Young, of Owl City fame, as a contestant for her male equivalent:

Owls, Fireflies, and Jesus

The silence isn't so bad
'Til I look at my hands and feel sad
'Cause the spaces between my fingers
Are right where yours fit perfectly

- Vanilla Twilight, Owl City

a new way

I remember when I was in middle school, one of the debating topics was about procrastination. As I sat there and listened to the first speaker introduce the topic, I was relieved that I wasn't a debator, because I had no idea what procrastination meant. Not only was the word absent from my lexicon, it was also absent from my lifestyle.

How times have changed.

Procrastination is the bane of many students' lives. I speak to my friends about it, and we all indulge in communal whingeing about how we ought to stop procrastinating. But we can't. And for many years I've lived this life of not-enough-time , to the point that I've nearly forgotten what it feels like to be Truly bored. Because I've learned to numb that boredom with procrastination.

This afternoon as we were in the car, my brother asked me if I thought it was very slack of him to add an extra semester to his Law degree so that he could have more time. I did think so, and told him. "But it would be nice to have time to have a life," he argued. I then geared myself up and proceeded to give him a lecture on adultescence and the irresponsibility it depicted. "That's not what I'd use it for," he said, "I'd be happy even doing housework. Or sweeping the garden. Like that couple over there."

Funnily enough, I too had been watching that couple sweep their garden. And I had been thinking how nice it was that they could perform that simple task together (as in separately, but together. You know.)

A lot of things have been coming together for me. For months, I have been telling people how I have to stop being so addicted to Facebook. I have Conviction that it is an unhealthy obsession for me. I even wrote a mini three-pronged-argument on why I should reduce my Facebook time in my journal, based both on my own personal thoughts and experieinces, and on external factors such as sermons I have heard. You can call Facebook innocent and a "social networking tool", or whatever, but loving anything too much can also be a sin, and that's how it was for me.

So at Easter camp when it came to the altar call and we were asked to nail something to the cross, guess what I nailed? Because in spite of my conviction, I had repeatedly been relying on my own strength to quit my addiction. And I was just reminded there and then that I needn't try so hard and repeatedly set myself up for failure, because by grace and the cross Christ has already overcome our sins for us!

Right now it is 8:09pm on Sunday night, I have contributed to the household chores, I have finished all my work, and I have even gone for a run (okay, a jog) along the foreshore. I have no idea what else to do with my time. This is strangely reminiscent of that stress-free lifestyle I once led, when I was in middle school. I now have Too Much Time, and I guess No Time isn't going to be an excuse for not going to cell group this week. Perhaps I ought to search for some worthwhile hobbies!

P.S. I am blogging because I was telling my friend that since I now have Too Much time, he ought to start blogging so that I could read it whenever I felt Truly bored. But he has a girlfriend so I guess that explains why he has No Time, and he suggested that I should start blogging instead. If even to amuse myself.

P.P.S Does this count as a worthwhile hobby?