well, that's a relief. after a very bad start to my CAs, i couldn't have asked for a better ending to it. totally screwed up my biochem, so please don't remind me of it. physio was a-ok, though the endocrine question was a tad confusing. out of five possible manifestations of the pituitary tumour, i chose three(i think), but i heard prof h only wanted two. hmm. and we weren't sure if we were meant to take it as hormonal increase or decrease. i took it as all increase, so i rambled on and on about growth hormone and adh and the lot. hope he'll give me at least ten to fifteen marks for that, cuz i totally screwed the renal question. some weird thing about creatinine clearance where few of us gave any consideration to the fact that the patient was skinny and vegietarian. -sigh- and the treatment question, with all the clinical aspects of it that we're so blur about. dialysis! i only found out yesterday that you can use dialysis as an immediate treatment for people with renal failure. woo.


and spots, which was today. spots. that one word is enough to send chills down the spines of the first years, and only happy memories from seniors. it's a sort of musical chairs thing, where we move from station to station and try to identify the different parts of the body. we are given forty-five seconds per question and the anat hall assistant's job was to sit in one corner with a stopwatch and hit the bell when the time was up. i wouldn't call it fun, since i had the worst exam jitters i've ever had in my life this morning, and i saw some people crying outside the hall. it takes quick recall and a steady mind to do it well. anyway, i made several careless mistakes as usual. i seem to be condemned to doing such stupid things during exams all my life, especially the non-essay tests. have been like this since primary school! anyhoo, it's over, and now we can happily look forward to the first pros.


went out with zp, th and fish just now. met them at nydc for lunch after kamala's with my anat group. ordered this mushroom baked pasta thing that was extaordinarily filling, and had lots of rosemary in it. argh. if i had known i wouldn't have bought it. learnt from my cooking experiments over the december holidays that i can't consume very much rosemary-flavoured mushrooms. a little tastes nice, but not a huge plate of it. on top of it the mushrooms were weird, not sure what type they were. then again, i realised i've never eaten a meal at nydc, for some reason or another. quick bites and tea breaks yes, but not meals. think i should stick to that huh.


the best part: watching assault on precinct 13 at lido. original plan was to catch hitch, but a last minute change of plan made us watch assault. and what a damn good film it turned out to be. sure, it was nc-16 (and th was asked for his id!) probably for violence but the story was compelling, the actors perfect and the direction neat and appropriate. it's about a detroit cop still feeling guilty about the death of his fellow officers several months before. he takes up a desk job and alcohol because he can't handle his guilt, until one fateful new years' eve when a recently arrested big-time gangster is held for the night in his precinct's lock-up. unbeknownst to him, this gangster, bishop, had once brokered a deal with a senior officer. this 'deal' involved more than thirty police officers and bishop's arrest puts their payroll in jeopardy. so before he's to go on trial the senior cop, [something] duvall, decides to try and kill him. but he's up against tough resistance from jake and his fellow officers. duvall lays siege on the building, and as the night wears on, many people are killed but eventually, duvall is shot dead and jake lets bishop go free.


what made the show interesting was the extraordinary casting -- good choice in lawrence fishburne and ethan hawke. lawrence fishburne brought a sort of ice-cold dignity to his cop-killing character and ethan hawke lent a raw edge to his guilt-ridden character. there was also the directing, what with the jerky camera movements and with the camera following everyone in the opening sequence. very edgy and raw and refreshing. to top it off, i loved the issues it dealt with. we see two people on opposite sides of the law learning to respect each other for what he himself isn't, and the distrust in other people that we all sometimes feel when we doubt ourselves. the drugs and the liberal use of profanities didn't detract from these themes, while the backdrop of winter over the industrialized detroit served to reinforce them. well, i never saw the orignial 1976 version so i can't compare, but this is good enough.


quote from the movie: i want to live, as opposed to not wanting to die.