for a good cause.

before i tell everyone what i did with my friday night, let me give you a little bit of background information:
-there were about 12 of us in total. couple of 1st years, couple of 4th years and a bunch of 2nd years.
-i managed to raise a modest $120.80. as a group we raised well over $6,000.
-most importantly it was for a good cause.

ok.
you guys ready?
are you sitting down?
cause you might be in for a pretty big shock...

i took part in the leukemia foundation's world's greatest SHAVE!
that's right. i shaved my head.

now you see it:


now you don't!


i think the girls had WAY too much fun.


laura and susan & their work of "art".


so why did i do this?
1. for the same reason that i grew my hair out last year. i didn't want to bother looking for places that'll give me a decent hair cut for a decent price.
2. people didn't seem to like the long hair very much.
3. it was for a good cause.
4. its something you have to do at least once i think.
5. it'll grow back. right???

thanks to everyone who DONATED. thanks to everyone that came out & thanks to sara and the girls for organizing everything. thank you to my roommates. they were kind with their money and kind with their support. i was a little worried about my eye brows at one point, but i knew my head was in good hands.

when i got home, matt gave me a hand cleaning it up. we decided to clean it RIGHT up.

i hope y'all like it!
will post up more pictures on facebook later on in the afternoon.

september!

last night i went to the E.S. Meyers Memorial Lecture. it's a lecture that was established in 1957 in memory of Errol Solomon Meyers who was, to put it briefly, one of the founders of UQ Medical School. this year's lecturer was Dr. Charlie Teo.

charlie's a neurosurgeons with some controversy. let's just say he isn't the most popular neurosurgeon amongst his australian colleagues. he claims to be the best neurosurgeon. let me clarify that. he claims to be the best at what he does. and what he does is what's called minimally invasive keyhole surgery. the basic premise is... instead of performing brain surgery by cutting up half the patient's head, he makes significantly smaller incisions and uses an endoscope. i think what pisses the other doctors off is that they feel this procedure is a more dangerous operation than what is currently the "standard". he is also accused of performing surgeries that are of greater risk and of giving patients false hope. charlie defends that his procedures have similar complication rates as the techniques used by other neurosurgeons. he also says that it is much more effective. as for false hope, he says there is no such thing as false hope. there are only false promises. and he says he never makes false promises and emphasizes the fact that he has never been sued by any of his patients.
i'm not quite sure why there is so much disdain for charlie. when i asked him about it, he said he wasn't 100% sure either. he says it's partly because he's never been very good at "toeing-the-line". i think part of it is also surgeons and their egos. charlie talks about one case in which surgeon X told patient Y that she had removed 90% of the tumour in her brain. as it later turned out in a consultation with charlie, less than 10% was actually removed. charlie basically then called surgeon X an idiot and proceeded to remove the rest of the tumour.
i really enjoyed the lecture. but when i try to pinpoint WHAT exactly i found so great... i can't. i don't really have any aspirations to be this world famous neurosurgeon. nor do i want to be a trendsetter and a person that questions and pushes the boundaries. no. i will (and have) always toe-the-line. maybe it's because he's asian. for as long as medicine has been a boys' club. it's also been a white-man's club. so maybe i find charlie so refreshing because he is so un-asian like. i haven't quite figured out where i'm going with this. but i'm on to something. i'll continue this another time.
if you want more info about charlie, read THIS or THIS or watch THIS. or just do a google search.

oh! did i mention he's a rider? a bike rider. no not like lance. more like house.
so the next time you (won't name names) tell me i shouldn't ride a bike because its very un-doctor like, and then proceed to ask me how many doctors i know that ride motorcycles, i will say ONE! dr. charlie teo!

on a lighter note...
went to the law revue on wednesday night. it's a collection of sketches and songs put on by the law students. unfortunately i'm going to have swallow my pride and say that it was actually better than the MED revue. much better. it was more polished, funnier and more pleasing to the ear. not to take anything away from the med revue, and all the hard work everyone put into that, but you gotta give credit where credit is due.

6 weeks! 6 weeks left of classes. wow.

ps. i don't DISLIKE my short hair. but i miss my long hair.

pps. saw a girl eating a muffin the other day. and all of a sudden had this huge craving for a corn muffin from Coffee Time. add that to my need-to-eat list for when i'm back in toronto.

it's gone.

yes.
i have cut my hair. is everyone happy now?
i feel so naked. i'm not completely sure it was such a great idea at this point. i'll give myself a few days to "grow into it".
before:

after:

why the sudden change of heart? well. first, let me assure you that it wasn't because i caved under peer pressure. as a matter of fact, if anyone implies that it was because of peer pressure i might just go on another hair-growing spree.
so why did i cut it then? well mostly for 2 reasons:
1. i've run out of conditioner.
2. laura promised to bake me a dozen home-baked cookies in exchange for a haircut.
SOLD!

in seriousness, i cut it because it was getting distracting.
back to my "normal" hairdo for a few months. maybe next year i'll give myself a shave.

poll results & miscellaneous

well, seems like the readers have spoken. the hair will stick around for a little while longer. but i'm a little disappointed with the voter turn out. i KNOW there are more than 5 of you out there that read my blog. come on!
the official count was:
1 for "YES! Please! You're embarrassing me!"
3 for "NO! Looks great! Let's give Fabio a run for his money!"
and 1 for "Meh. Stop being such an attention seeker. Do whatever you want."

today is the big day. it's the big TWO-THREE. doesn't seem like a big deal though. i feel like i've been 23 for a while now. kept it pretty low key today. will probably be going out for dinner with some friends on friday.
thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes, e-mails, cards, facebook wall posts...
i noticed that this year was not only my first birthday away from home but also my first birthday with school. being an august baby, i've always been on holidays during my birthday. it's nice to go to class and have everyone wish me a happy birthday.
of all the great little gifts that i got, a preppy tie for clinical coachings from clara, roots t-shirts for that homey-feeling from stella, john mayer CD from jules, a philip yancey book from matt... i think my favorite - mind you they were all pretty fantastic! would have to be the mini jar of nutella that susan got me.

seriously haha. clearly the word is out that i'm a bit of a nutella junkie.

we've had 3 full days of rain. how refreshing. it was well overdue. we've been on level 5 water restrictions for the past few months. level 5? doesn't mean much to you does it? it doesn't mean much to me either! from what i know, it means that you can't use outdoor sprinklers and hoses, washing your personal car is prohibited, you can only water your plants using a watering can on alternating days, and there are restrictions on water usage with penalties for high volume users. yea... still doesn't mean a whole lot to me.

there are now 9 weeks left until my final set of exams. it's time to kick the study up into high gear. i've been using my birthday as the "checkpoint". seems like a long while away but i'm betting that it'll fly by a lot quicker than i expect.

nerdy fact of the day: did you know that matt damon's character in the bourne trilogy - jason bourne, has the same birthday as me? yep. jason bourne is an august 21st (1969) baby.

AND of course, happy birthday to my birthday buddy. happy birthday meg!

hair update #2...

i still haven't cut my hair. as previously mentioned, the last hair cut was on march 5th. for those of you keeping track, that's 165 days and counting.

hm... should i cut it?
reasons for YES:
(1) i hate it when my hair gets into little knots everywhere.
(2) i'm (sort of) getting tired of the long hair.
(3) i don't like the slimey/slippery feeling that conditioner leaves on my body after i rinse my hair.
(4) i look like a korean fob.
(5) my bangs poke my eyes.
(6) i can't fit all my hair into my swimming cap.
(7) i'm constantly having to pick up my hair off my bedroom floor.
(8) many of my oz friends think this is what i normally look like.

reasons for NO:
(1) i don't want to go back to my short spikey hair look. every 2nd generation-asian kid has the same hair cut! well, sort of. short at the sides, short the back...
(2) i've started using conditioner, and i LIKE it! it leaves my hair nice and smooth.
(3) my hair is long enough for me to twirl in between my fingers. *this one counts for TWO points!
(4) i can't wear my headbands with short hair.
(5) i always give up on growing my hair after a few months. i should STICK IT OUT!
(6) i probably won't have a chance like this to grow my hair out again. i've been lucky this year with a pretty relaxed clinical coach.
(7) many of my oz friends think this is what i normally look like.

clearly. it's a tough choice.
and as such, to you dear loyal reader of my blog, i give you the opportunity to speak up! fill out the little poll at the bottom of the page. poll closes on monday, august 20th, 2007 at 11:59pm Brisbane local time. That's sometime around 9:59am on august 20th in toronto. i will seriously consider the results of this poll when making my decision.

A hairy update…

Since arriving in oz I’ve only cut my hair once.
That was on march 5th. almost 12 weeks ago.
Understandably, my hair is getting quite long. And is starting to look like a bit of a mullet at the back. (I’ll let you put on your creative thinking-caps to come up with some visual imagery of your own for that one. Okay, no. it’s not THAT bad. Think a little shorter.)
I’ve been wearing it au naturel. No gel. No headband. Just me, my hair and the breeze running through it.
And I like it!

sudden loss...

today i lost a friend that was near and dear to my heart.
the lost came so suddenly. for a few seconds i stood there not knowing what to do.

*sniff sniff*
thanks for the memories.
may you rest in peace.

ok seriously... damn! my headband broke! i just went to put it on and it snapped!
i know some of you disliked it from the start but i loved that headband! now what am i going to do? err!!!
i'll take this as a sign that i should get my hair cut. i will THINK about getting it cut this weekend or the next.