stupid muscles and their latin derviatives! >_<

it took me the better part of the weekend but i've got the muscles of the forearm and the hand down.
i think.

anconeus. supinator. pronator teres. pronator quadratus. brachioradialis. extensor carpi brachialis longus. extensor carpi brachialis brevis. extensor digitorum. extensor digitorum minimus. extensor carpi ulnaris. flexor carpi ulnaris. flexor carpi radialis. palmaris longus. flexor carpis ulnaris. flexor pollicis longus. flexor digitorum superficialis. flexor digitorum profundus. flexor pollicis longus. abductor pollicis longus. extensor pollicis brevis. extensor pollicis longus. extensor indicis. palmar interosseous. lumbricals. abductor digitori minimi. flexor digitori minimi. opponens digitori minimi. opponens pollicis. abductor pollicis brevis. flexor pollicis brevis. adductor pollicis. dorsal interosseous.
AHHH!!!

watch your fingers!

i love my limbs. and i love my digits. all 20 of them.
why the sudden appreciation?
we had this brutal lecture (there's really no other way to describe it. brutal. just brutal!) on friday afternoon about reconstructive surgery with a special focus on the hands and fingers.
it was one of those lectures where some of the technical content was beyond our current knowledge but it was interesting as heck.
the guest lecturer had a steady supply of freak accidents and gruesome pictures to match. something that really caught my attention was a toe-transfer. in this one case, a patient had lost his thumb. seeing as how important the thumb is for our daily functioning, they removed the second toe from his right foot and attached it to where his thumb was. fortunately for this patient, it was possible because most of the nerves and blood vessels of the hand that supply the thumb were still in pretty good shape. so now he has a second toe for a thumb. sure it looks a little odd, but in terms of function, it's heaps better than having no thumb.

be good to your digits.

our second lecture yesterday was on the cranial nerves and what happens when they are injured. cranial nerve IV got me thinking... cranial nerve IV (the trochlear nerve) is important for eye movement. in particular, it plays a key role in the movement of the eye in the lateral plane (side to side) when the eye turned inferiorly (looking down). damage to the trochlear nerve results in the loss of this control. this leads to double vision. however, patients will soon learn that if they tilt their head down and towards their good eye, this will help with the visual problems. so. i wonder if horatio caine, the detective in CSI: Miami suffers from trochlear nerve damage...

whose clock is ticking?

a cousin of mine got married over the labour day weekend. yay! i'm told it was a beautiful wedding and i wish i could've been there.

l->r: clara, stephen, bride and groom: eunice and martin, justin, harri
MIA: stella, my little brother patrick and myself

(although you probably won't read this but...)
welcome to the family martin. i wish you and eunice all the best!

little family background info.
eunice and stephen are siblings. they grew up in new york.
justin and harri are brothers.
stella and clara are sisters.
pat and i are obviously brothers. the 6 of us have always been close. i'm sure we would've been much closer to eunice and stephen too if they had grown up in canada but those yanks are weird. haha. ;)
we're a tight knit group. sure the girls are a little introverted, pat is everyone's favorite cousin (it shocks me too that i'm not the favorite!), harri's a little off-the-wall sometimes and justin is... well let's just say he's justin. one-of-a-kind! but seriously i wouldn't replace any one of these 5. we're also all around the same age. justin is the dinosaur at 26 and pat is the baby at 18. with eunice getting married, it has naturally brought up the question of "who's next?"
well... i was texting stella about this and my money's on justin. i'm sure he can hear his biological clock ticking and word on the street has it that he's getting soft. SOFT!
now that's all in jest, but 1 thing that i can tell you for sure is that it's not gonna me! i've still got a good few years of KICK left in me!
hahaha!

miss saigon...

went out to see miss saigon at the queensland performing arts centre (QPAC) today. it was a sad little story. did i cry? nah. do i look like a softee? don't answer that.
it was good. i enjoyed the show. had a good time, met a few second years...
but i was a little disappointed with the theatre and the turnout. we went to a sunday matinee show (cause it's cheaper!). we were in the first row of the 3rd deck. but seriously, 95% of the seats in the upper deck were empty. that was a little disappointing.
also you know how back home, you get a little free program? with pics and background info about the cast? here? nothing. we got nothing. i don't even know the name of the actress who played kim (the female lead).
also the QPAC has a really small stage. probably seats like 2000+ but the stage was TINY! and it had no character. kind of like the Toronto Centre for the Arts (the one in North York, used to be called the Ford Centre for the Performing Arts - i think). it was really just a lot of concrete and really mundane. nothing like royal alexandra theatre or even the canon theatre.

went out for some korean food and gelato afterwards. mm... mm... MMM!

worms and sheep.

it's been raining again in brisbane. it's been raining quite often lately.
one thing i've noticed about rainy days in brisbane is that you don't see as many worms on the sidewalk as you do in toronto. when i was in primary school, i remember having to tip-toe along the sidewalks because i didn't want to step on the worms.

do you know who they named dolly the sheep after?
dolly the sheep was named after dolly parton the country singer.
why?
well the cell that the scientists used to clone dolly the sheep was a mammary cell.
how hilarious is that?!

ps. i know what i want for x'mas! here's a hint! it came out today!