professor ted

i've been catching up on a lot of 'how i met your mother' lately. like 2 seasons-worth in a week. awesome and legend-wait-for-it-ary. but that also means that my work has been... quality challenged. borderline impaired. but let's have none of that. because, that's just depressing, and if we can all learn from barney one thing, and one thing only, it's this: denial is the first step to escapism into a world that is just plain. awesome.

anyway. the reason i bring up himym is the following; i've always related to ted as a character. not to say that i am in any way like him, but just that i relate to a lot of things that he stands for. monogamy (although this may be better represented in marshall and lily). romanticism. keeping a straight nose for things. idealisms. pacifism. all that jazz.

but i also empathise (and sympathise) with some of his caveats and pitfalls. and do them from time to time. yeah. like his emotional involvement. although i didn't ever perform a 'mosby'. his tendency to overlook things and only see the signs and telltales which serve or support his agenda (the stella and the leaving him at the altar arc. cold bloodeeddddddd). persnickety about details and constantly correcting little things (even though he may not be in the right, in the first place) [is't pronounced encyclo-pay-de-ya. right.]. all that jazz.

and so, at the end of season 4 (yeah i know season 5 is coming to an end, calm down, i'll watch it when i download the whole season at some point. no spoilers kkthx), when ted becomes professor ted. pow. blew. my. mind.

also, i've come to notice a few easter eggs that are off the hook. season 3 episode 14, at the very end. barney writes in his blog, which is, oddly and dull enough, white, boring text on a blue background. wow, what stupid blog could be lamer? this is barney. his blogs should have explosions and lasers and naked cheerleaders. right? blogging-five. but, for those too young to remember, (and here's a hint, the theme song plays in the background as he types, and the starting text is oh-so-reminiscent of another series), here's the give-away... it's a reference to the very series that got nph famous in the first place, doogie howser, m.d.!

then, in season 4 episode 15, he goes on a rant about how 'tyler' is such a horri-wait-for-it-ble actor, and says, 'call me crazy, but child actors were way better back in the 80's'. BAM. he can barely keep a straight face while saying this, ha! self-reference-five, what up!?

anyway. yeah, i just ran out of material to talk about. 'til next time, folks. now i gotta go watch me some doctor who. i heard it's awesome.

rook

remember boys and girls,
before you cross the road, so scary;
look left, look right, look far ahead,
of the rook you must be wary.

he comes, so obvious,
his strides don't vary.
he picks off kids,
who stop and tarry.

because, unlike alice, poor girl,
you shan't stop to count beads of rosary,
or smell the roses, chrysanthemums unfurl,
while merchants stamp them in their fury.

in any case, the rook is harsh,
a castle of coal and wizardry;
cannot be beat, since its creation,
to challenge it would be great folly.

so, guard your queen,
and look out for,
the rook, 'fore he forces through.
you'll pay your green,
your debts of lore,
of gold, of thought, and of sinew.

'lil boys and girls, have you checked your closets, and under your beds so dingy?
'cause monsters aren't as scary as, oh ye, what spawns fury.

so. very. tired.

i'm not sure why, but i always end up nodding off in lectures nowadays. i can understand how this used to happen during my undergrad years, what with having 9 - 5 classes, with the occasional lab/dissection sessions. speaking of which, having parasitology labs just before lunch is a great way for all you girls trying for a diet, and all you guys trying to buff up by skipping the lean. here's an example of what would normally greet you in said sessions:


anyway. yeah. that was way back when. nowadays i have like 2 lectures back to back and i'm already dead. it doesn't help that there's only about 7 students in any given lecture, and the lecturer can hardly miss anyone not paying attention, much less someone who blatantly faceplants into the swiveling desk thingy.

my friend says it's low iron. ehhh. i dunno. i've never been the type to buy into all these supplements and the hype related to them. but it fits, and any good doctor would probably hack up a prescription for me, or something like that. which would have nothing to do with their revenues, of course. because people are philantropists that way. criticisms on healthcare system saved for another day.

but yeah. so tired. all the time. it's like a malignancy just waiting to implode, and one day, i swear, i'll think back on this and say, 'god, i knew that tumor started back then'. at which point it'll be too late.

i wish there were pills to help keep you awake for a couple hours or so. oh, wait, those things do exist. they probably mess up your brain chemistry enough to cause cancers, if i don't have one already.

mmmm. mri scans. my favourite flavour, too.

check(out my)mate

and here, poor fool
with all my lore
i stand no wiser
than before

thanks to smbc for quoting one of my favourite quotes of all time!

it reflects many things, but mainly, i think, it is a testimonial to how, after so many years of trying to understand the enigmatic subtleties of mathematics and science... we really aren't anywhere farther from the starting point than we claim to be. as doc emmet brown would have traded his tradeskills, one day we may end up saying, ourselves:

time-traveling is just too dangerous. better that I devote myself to study the other great mystery of the universe: women!

not that the latter is any easier to understand, mind you.

so why is it that we keep trying and trying... but we get nowhere? again, the smbc strip offers a cryptic answer: we keep running to remain the same.

what now? the red queen hypothesis states that we advance (in various ways) to keep the status quo the same, because our co-evolving environment does so as well. without the constant change we subject ourselves to, we would effectively be left behind and bite the dust. quoting more lewis carroll:

it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.

or at least that's what the queen says. and for the biologist, running is the analogy for sex. or at least the imperative for sexual reproduction. yeap, figure that one out for yourselves! and for the time being, let me bask in the blaze of glorious victory, as i ponder the possibility of a red queen dethroning fermina.

how to write about timing (blogrolling and trolling)

a competent writer knows how to write. he is grammatically correct, his spelling is impeccable, his vocabulary is sufficient.

a good writer knows how to write interestingly. he plays with his words, he sculpts his phrases, he uses various modes of delivery and literary vehicles. he is unpredictable, yet coherent, his writing is culturally set and has contextual value. he makes it easy to read, and worth reading.

a great writer knows how to write superfluously, and in doing so, blows. your. mind. he writes in prose but it reads in song, he pens down words which project in pictures, he says one sentence and your mind reads in infinitum of thoughts. readers think of what is read, critics begrudgingly acknowledge his prowess and masses flock to his concepts and notions, irrespective of how they are worded.

there are many landmarks of these things. personally, i like rhetoric and rhyme; i like controversy and courtesy; i like emotion and intonation in the words on a page. what do you like?

of these many things, i cannot say i am any. and i say this, because readers are what make the writer, a lesson i am hard pressed to learn. but, i can say that i have read from a myriad of people who are all of these things, and more. i don't have a blogroll, and i don't think i will make one, but this entry is dedicated to such a thing should i have had it. and obviously the people who write. in alphabetical order:

1. candid, casual and simple. one of the few people i know who can write like they speak. adam j.
2. creative and unique. what reaches me is more the imagery than the wording. johan ishak.
3. the inspiration that started it all, thanks to pirate king for introducing me to azrael.
3. upbeat, cheerful and eerily, something i can relate to. i don't even know why. and that's one of those things that make a writer that much better than the rest of us - nj.
4. totally random, and very insightful into the life of those we always take for granted. girl in stilettos.
5. an induction into the ways of chillism - paan.
6. yet another person who writes as if the pen were her mouth (although for fear for my life and the anonymity of us both, that's all i'll say). what'sherface.
7. random. bizarre. actually quite stressful. but in a good way. this blog makes me think of the things that we have and the things that we could learn to do without. lurve.
8. one of the best writers i have come across, if only by virtue of that reader-writer relationship. some people try so hard to relate to their readers, or have their readers relate to them. and then there's those to whom this just comes naturally. ijai-not-as-cool-as-you-think-you-are...
9 and 10. simple, carefree and really, i'm not sure where this is going. the blog grows in content and in maturity as the writers do, themselves, and as far as outlooks go, here's looking to you, kids. zizi/mun.

there's quite a few more blog which i read, but i'm sure they'll excuse my not listing them here, for them not knowing about this blog, for them not knowing i read theirs, for fear that i have already written more than i should have been (again), and for them wanting their anonymity.

thanks to all the readers out there, existent or non-. to all of you, happy blogsday. have some blogsday cake.

an end to an(tibiotic) era

i read quite a few blogs. and i always like it when people post stuff pertaining to their areas of expertise. kind of like someone with (debatable) authority posting an idiot's guide to something - simplified, general, practical. i wish the blogs i read would do more of this, but i dunno if this is just me and people dislike these types of posts. anyway. leading on to what i was going to post today, a few things about antibiotics (which most of you probably already know).

depending on where you're residing, different antibiotics may be over-the-counter or by prescription, and this has a fully justifiable reason. some of you may live in, say, malaysia, where antibiotics are like the cure-all and are ridiculously overprescribed. some of you may live in the uk where the proverbial sh*t has pretty much hit the fan and they're implementing stop-gap measures to control prescriptions. but, no matter where you live, it's a definite case that you probably don't need those pills you're so reliant on.

bacteria are smart. they wage the canonical 'biological arms race' against whatever crap we throw at them, which may be stuff we find naturally, or some nasty chemicals we conjure up in the lab. conjure here being an interesting choice of words, since, when you go down to the details, how scientists come up with their discoveries... is pretty much witchcraft and hoodoo anyway. so, for every bacterium that wages these battles, they're better equipping themselves for the greater war. here's some tips to help us out. it won't win the war for us but it'll probably give time for us to develop new and exciting weapons with which to prolong it. my metaphors are bad.

1. antibiotics kill living things, namely bacteria (but sometimes other stuff, but let's not go there). taking antibiotics when you have a flu will do nothing in the majority of cases, since it's probably caused by a virus. on which antibiotics have no effect. what's this you say, you already know this? and it's not a big deal? because it does no harm, you say? wrong. wrong. and wrong. taking 'unnecessary' antibiotics exposes your normal bacteria population (that resides on and in your bodies) to selective pressure. darwinian selection then weeds out the weak, leaving the (more) resistant ones, which, although may not effect you now, have a bigger implication when it comes to the population as a whole, especially, say, when you come into contact with the immunosuppressed, or become so yourself. e.g. if you have an operation, or get a bigger infection or just grow old and bitter.

basically, if you don't need it, don't take it. or for you doctors out there, stop prescribing unnecessarily. what? your patient's b*tching and you need to shut him up? tell the sucker to suck less and suck it up. heck, if you think you need it, but only as a means to reduce some minimally-impacting symptom, screw it - you're just quickening the bacterial-resistance clock. and time's ticking out.

2. if you're gonna kill 'em, kill 'em all. i'm sure the doctors out there are bored of this. and some of you have heard this a million times. if you're on a course of antibiotics, don't stop midway. don't skip out on your regimes. don't be bad and think that just because you feel better, it's all chocolate rainbows and liquid sunshine. it just means you're asymptomatic, but heck knows if you've gotten rid of the culprits (even if you finish your regime, there's no guarantee of this). and, again, leaving survivors is bad, because of that selection picture i put up above. here, you can read more if you like.

3. antibiotics target specific pathways or structures in a bacterium. once bacteria develop resistance towards this, the antibiotic is pretty much useless. and the same applies for most, if not all, antibiotics which work in the same way. to prevent this, especially in hospital settings, you want to get a combination of antibiotics, which do not work in the same way, so that there's less chance the bacteria will develop resistance (this is simple statistics, say the chance of spontaneously developing resistance to respective antibiotic classes are p and q, p < p.q, especially given p and q should be small numbers). obviously, this doesn't apply to your monthly visit to the gp for your antibiotic to treat a sore throat, but this point is more for the graduating doctors or fresh registrars who still prescribe 2 beta lactams because '2 is better than one'. this isn't boys like girls ft. taylor swift - stop being bad and do the right thing. try some aminoglycoseds or something to go with the beta lactams. or something.

4. antibiotic resistance differs according to your geographical location, and hence, so does your prescription regulations. ask your doctor for more information. so, when you're going on that cross-world journey, don't think you can self prescribe for your gangrenous leg or endocarditis just because you have something left over from last year. get a doctor's opinion. and make sure the doctor isn't the doctor. who?

5. there's more points i wanna make... but let's end it with this one: prevention is better than cure. if you have something, try not to get others infected. this includes making out with your girl just after getting out of the hospital, and running off to the local brothel 2 hours into pay-day. we don't need to give prophylactic and preventative antibiotics to random whores (not that i have anything against them), especially not when they could be better used to treat homeless degenerates... or third world baby machines... or serial puppy-killers with sprinkles on top.

this isn't to say you shouldn't visit grandma at hospital because she's on her deathbed with consumption or flesh-eating bacteria. but this is to say that just because you aren't feeling as horrible as you did when you got that strep throat 2 days ago, you're free to go coughing up in every tom, dick and harry's grills. and that's my convoluted and unnecessarily-long sentence for the week.

what dreams may dream

some time ago, i posted a pretty elaborate series of posts about my top ten choices of movies. now, it's unsurprising that, given it's not something i did with too much effort, some really good movies were left out; having me not have viewed quite a lot of them, and even the ones i did, i mightn't have remembered. anyway. there's also the thing about new movies.

i never really give much credit to new movies. they're generally a bit meh, with some exceptions, and even if they're great, i guess i'm just one of those people who need it to simmer a bit before it ascends to greatness. maybe a couple of months, maybe a year or so. it's more of a general feel thing, than a clear-cut decision. no mathematical precision involved kinda. and, of course, there's some exceptions. like 'lovely bones', or shawshank, or 'matrix', or lotr, which, upon viewing, they kinda blew my mind.

anyway. ahem. as you may have expected. inception. really good stuff. yeap, you saw this coming from a kilometer away. eff you americans for your 'mile away' metaphors. SI or gtfo.

i sometimes post my random dream encounters, which are pretty retarded and full of epic fail. and i've definitely had that 'dream in a dream' crap happen one too many times. but yeah, never mind that, let me just say a few words about inception, and how it should make my list of top movies (but we'll let that simmer before any type of induction happens).

first and foremost, it's a great movie, don't get me wrong. the storyline is quite original, but it is somewhat flimsy and underdeveloped. that being said, it still lasted 3 hours-ish, and i guess that just happens when you have about 5 different movies in one (think of each level as a separate movie, i guess, with potential for a lot of development in each one).

there's a few inconsistencies, too. like, when they're in the hotel building (3rd i think?) level. oh wait, eff. i should put a disclaimer here, since maybe some people haven't seen it yet...

*SPOILARZ INCOMING, DO NOT READ THIS PARAGRAPH IF YOU DON'T WANT DUMBLEDORE TO BE GAY KTHX*

yeah in the hotel building, while the van is falling. apparently, the stuff in the building have zero gravity because of the free-falling van. okay, i can roll with that. but then, to create gravity, the 3rd rock guy (who i think is pretty awesome) moves everyone into an elevator, then blows up the cables, after which the elevator drops and they create artificial gravity. really, how would the elevator drop in the shaft if there was zero g effecting it? it would make more sense if the shaft were moved by the cables (at a very high speed) to artificially make gravity, but, eh... minor details. physicists, have a field day on this one. anyway. not gonna nitpick the other minor details, because it'll probably spoil the epicness for a lot of you. just wanted to point out that there's some loopholes in there. which, i guess could be explained by just waving your hands around and saying 'it's a dream, anything can happen'. i guess.

*SPOILARZ END HERE*

but, like my friend, the don, says: 'it has the uncanny ability to keep you at the edge of your seat, thinking to the last minute', and i totally agree with him (you can't disagree with the don, anyway, for fear of finding a horse's head in your bed the next morning). but, 3 hours, and it felt like only 20mins. why, that's like we're being in a dream, with all that time expansion crap, right? or, like i simplistically put it to the don, you rarely find such a captivating movie nowadays, it's nice and fresh to find one where you don't get bored half-way through.

at the risk of sounding like a fanboi, i'm gonna stretch it here and say, yeap, inception is totally worth the watch, and i'd watch it a couple more times just to pick on the finer details. not at the movies, again, though. i'm cheap like that.

as a closing statement, i'd just like to reflect on how at the end, leo's character spins his totem and the movie ends before we can make out if it perpetually spins, or if it drops. there's, again, something that bothers me with inconsistency relating to other parts of the movie, but i think it's well enough left there.

feel free to post comments / theories / criticisms etc. on the movie; i'd really like to hear what people have to say about it. kudos to christopher nolan.