Light fantastic

I have to say the artwork produced by Michael Bosanko is fantastic and he is one my favourite artists at the moment. Bosanko creates his art by using torches and long exposure on a digital camera - no trickery or photoshop edits. It’s a bit like the sparkler effect that you get when you waved it about quite quickly. I’ve included some of my favourite images of his work follow but I have so many more. To see more of his work the website is http://www.michaelbosanko.com/

The devil roaming the streets at night

Nice combination of colours - reminds me of a DNA helix

Again nice colours - jazz music



Pretty flowers by the sea

Creepy crawlies - alien life

Nintendo Wii

I got it for my brother’s 10th birthday but now I’m hooked. I spent an entire hour bowling, playing one game after another, in order to reach the level of a pro... as proved by the first two pictures. Who knew it would be so addictive? I then preceeded to make little wii icon's for my entire family... mum, dad, Aisha, Bilal and me! Somebody save me, lol! Bilal also got a guitar for his birthday. Next stop combining the two - Guitar hero perhaps? :P

Lying on your CV

On the way into uni this morning, I read the following headline “CV ‘lies’ may cost council boss £1m”. Someone else on the train also read the same headline and joked that thousands of graduates must be being treated for panic attacks as we speak. The train carriage burst into laughter. Quite early in the morning, not sure if everyone was high or what. Actually thinking back, a couple of people in suits did look a tad bit uncomfortable, I wonder why lol. Ah well my journeys to university and back are very entertaining these days :)

Clinical placement begins

New place, new hospital, new staff, new patients... right now I'm mixture of excitement, nerves, anxiety and more excitement, lol. Just a brief run through of my first few days is as follows. Although I've fleetingly visited my supervisor before the Christmas holidays, I assumed it would be easy to find. On my first official first day, I know I'm due up to the academic area - simple enough... until I get to this sign...

Wait a second... which academic area did I go to before? What it surgery or medicine? Crap! *Silent scream!*

As I didn't want to be late on my first day, I did what any aspiring medic would do. I silently did a nursery rhyme dip. That's right "Ip dip do..." and I choose Surgery. Thankfully it was the right place :) I arrived to find that the offices have now been switched after the Christmas holidays so what was previously the shared office space was now a new diagnostic wet lab. I decided to have bit of a wander around to find my supervisors office. After about 5 minutes, I come across some familiar looking people. Success! With my supervisors office successfully located, I found my allocated desk for the year and settled down. I then met the IT department, consisting of Paul, John and another Paul who are a bunch of really lovely guys. They took the time to help me setup my IT account and provide me with software (SPSS, Endnote etc) that I would need for my study, which was really thoughtful of them :)

With that done I went for a bit of a wander around the hospital to get my bearings. I visited the vascular studies Unit (VSU) where I'll be based and met some of the hospital staff I'll be working with. With the VSU situated between other departments such as audiology, I wasn't surprised to find a number of posters informing me of risks, illnesses and what not. On the way into the VSU, this poster really caught my eye...

Maybe I'll teach myself sign language at some stage. It's a pretty cool thing to be able to do, plus the audiology department is literally next door if help is needed :)

After a few days I got the opportunity to get scrubbed in and watch a AAA bypass surgery and have a go at blood sampling (for one of the post-doc studies) during the operation. Due to rules camera phones etc are not allowed into the actual theatre, well not at least in Prof's theatre and I'm not about to argue with the man! Trust me when I say it is an awesome thing to watch. Scary but still awesome! Also the smell of freshly cauterised human flesh takes a bit of getting used to :(

Aren't hospital scrubs so fashionable? Do you think blue is my colour? lol

I also got shown the clinic room in the VSU I’ll be using to see patients. I waited until the staff member showing me around left to attend a phone call, before I took the pictures, lol. Although a large room, half it seems to be used for filing documents etc whilst the other half is used to store excess equipment until it is needed. Clearly tidying up is not a priority - I really had to keep a tight lid on my OCD and stop myself from tidying up the papers whilst the staff member was out of the room. Argh!

Looks like a graveyard for unloved equipment, lol. And yes that IS a treadmill in the corner.

So yes, this place will be my home away from home for the coming year. Fingers crossed it’ll be a good one :)

She wants to kill me!

Ok I have to admit that my cousin Sara may be right. The TomTom woman (also known as the voice Jane) is trying to kill me! I have the Alton Towers incident that we had last year behind me but for the past few weeks, driving back from Manchester, my dad’s TomTom is being evil.

My last few journeys have included the instructions – “turn left here”, which is fine. Except I was on the motorway at the time and turning left would have meant that I would crash through the barriers and end up in the River Calder! I had to give Dad his Sat Nav back eventually and my parents bought me an early birthday present – my own TomTom. Really kind and thoughtful of my parents as I have been travelling to different places quite regularly for my MSc project and hate getting lost and being late.

So off I went with the new sat nav, programmed in my destination, all fine and my journey ended with the voice telling me I had reached my destination… in the middle of busy dual carriageway. Erm somehow I think not! Only two incidents, but it has made me a bit dubious of Jane. What have I done to upset her? Is my TomTom just evil? Do I need to get a blessing done or something? lol.

It’s just so baaaaaaaaaad!

ARTICLE:

Newspaper claims suspect transformed into a goat

LAGOS (Reuters) – Police in Nigeria are holding a goat on suspicion of attempted armed robbery.Vigilantes took the black and white beast to the police saying it was an armed robber who had used black magic to transform himself into a goat to escape arrest after trying to steal a Mazda 323.

"The group of vigilante men came to report that while they were on patrol they saw some hoodlums attempting to rob a car. They pursued them. However one of them escaped while the other turned into a goat," Kwara state police spokesman Tunde Mohammed told Reuters by telephone

"We cannot confirm the story, but the goat is in our custody. We cannot base our information on something mystical. It is something that has to be proved scientifically, that a human being turned into a goat," he said.

Belief in witchcraft is widespread in parts of Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation. Residents came to the police station to see the goat, photographed in one national newspaper on its knees next to a pile of straw.

Guilty suspect

(Ok it may not be the actual goat but it looked cute enough!)

Ok, I read this article during a break and just thought… unbelievable. I especially love the line about how it has to PROVED scientifically, that a human being can be turned into a goat… err there’s no need for a scientific test, it just doesn’t happen! Has the world really gone mad???

Literature review

My life since December day and night, has revolved around my literature review for my project...

• Rough draft – Bullet points to get idea across of major content in my review
• Extensive reading of over a 100 different journal articles, not including books, websites, personal communications/lectures and so forth. All papers summarised, entered into my endnote library and filed in a logical order for easy go-to referencing of citations whilst writing my review
• 1st draft – Proper sentences, flowing text, re-ordering of sections/ layout
• 2nd draft - Problems with Endnote (Citation software) and the ordering of the citations function has a mind of its own! Also review is over the 6,500 word limit set by the uni guidelines (yet I have so much more that I want to write about!)
• 3rd draft - Fixed Endnote problem (Yea!), format changes (font size/ style have to match uni and journal guidelines), finally found a way to decrease the word count and still get my information across (discovered that text in figure legends does not count, phew!)
• Final draft – Content fine, word count fine, formatting fine... everything is completed, mashAllah.
  

Approved and checked by all for content, spelling and grammar, checked again by me, printed (in colour eventually), bound together, produced an electronic copy to accompany my two hard copies and finally submitted the whole thing!

The result – A 50 page document (or there abouts) that is my literature review and serves as an introductory chapter for my research project. It discusses the importance of cerebral emboli, the theory and application of the proposed detection methods to be used, the aetiology, epidemiology, pathophysiology, diagnostic criteria and past history of Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia, the possible treatments to be evaluated and finally ending with brief outline of my study and the time scale that I intend to use.

Here’s hoping a get a good mark (inshaAllah) for all that effort, hard work and long nights. I don’t think I slept properly for the whole month that I had off uni... staying up till 4am, sometimes even 5am is so not good for you and yet that is the time that my house is the quietest! During the day... well lets’ just say that the ear plugs that I bought at the beginning of my uni life, were a very wise purchase indeed :P Thank god I didn’t apply for a part time job these hols, I didn’t even have time to sleep, let alone having another job!

Barack Obama's Inauguration

Barack Obama: 44th President of the USA

Woohoo! He’s here! He’s here! Barack Obama has finally been inaugurated as the 44th president of the USA! He took his oath (twice!) and is now finally in charge of the whitehouse. I mean it’s gonna be a tough start for him there's no doubt about that (what with the previous administration’s mess) but I think the good times have arrived, hopefully. Can you tell how excited I am? lol

P.S. Here's a stupid joke I found... just wanted to share :)

An Israeli doctor says "Medicine in my country is so advanced that we can take a kidney out of one man, put it in another, and have him looking for work in six weeks." A German doctor says "That is nothing, we can take a lung out of one person, put it in another, and have him looking for work in four weeks." A Russian doctor says "In my country, medicine is so advanced that we can take half a heart out of one person, put it in another, and have them both looking for work in two weeks." The Texas doctor, not to be outdone, says "You guys are way behind, we recently took a man with no brains out of Texas, put him in the White House for eight years, and now half the country is looking for work."

Two ears and one tongue

Hmm... perhaps people should try to talk less and spend more time listening... after all it’s why god gave us two ears but only one tongue :)

On a completely unrelated topic, it's my baby brother's 10th birthday today mashAllah.

May god bless him with a happy and successful life... and also better listening skills as he grows older; he is a man after all, lol. Huh... so maybe not a completely unrelated topic after all then :P

“Is our children learning?”

And I think we can honestly say that “yes, yes I think we are learning”, lol. I am of course quoting George Bush. I can’t believe they finally got rid of him! How did the American public elect this man, not once but twice?!

I don’t think I need to reiterate all the things Bush said and did as they are all pretty well documented. It’s not something that can be easily forgotten. But I do wonder what Bush will do now, once he leaves office? A career as a public speaker? Err… somehow I think not. As with any former president, he’s taking steps to sort out his life post-presidency and trying to make the most of the time he’s got left. However it seems that the world has moved on.

Obama fever has taken over and everyone feels it is time for a change. No longer the topic of conversation, it makes me ask the question, will anyone really miss Bush? Make no mistake, the world is in a bad place at the moment after the Bush treatment - the economy, the numerous wars and so forth. Obama is gonna need all the help he can get! And it seems that with all eyes on Barack Obama, everyone is looking forward to a better and brighter future. Here’s hoping! :)

The New Doctor!

I remember seeing the old Dr Who series when I was a young child and it scared me a lot, thinking about it now though, those old versions of the Daleks do NOT look scary at all, in fact they look quite funny, lol. Therefore a couple of years back when they set about reviving the old programme, I wasn’t that bothered to be honest. Christopher Eccleston was the man chosen to play the Dr with Billy Piper (Girl with the song “Because we want to!” lol) as his assistant. I watched a few episodes and thought that they were brilliantly produced with excellent storylines but I wasn’t that interested about watching it on a regular basis. Then Christopher Eccleston decided to leave the show and the papers went mad speculating about who would be the new doctor. Inevitably I started to wonder as well and soon David Tennant was announced as the new doctor. And so with many others, I tuned in to watch his first episode out of sheer curiosity... and I LOVED it! LOL.

David Tennant was such a unique doctor and I have to say I prefer him a lot more than Eccleston. I loved this new doctor could switch from comedy to geeky nerd to caring humanitarian, all beautifully and flawlessly conveyed (err, do I sound a bit biased? Hehe). Plus the chemistry that he had on screen with Billy Piper was fantastic and I think they made a better pairing than Eccleston and Piper. That’s not to say Eccleston wasn’t good, as his acting abilities were excellent as well... it just that I preferred this version of the doctor more! I started watching the show on a regular basis and even the back stage commentaries where I discovered that David Tennant has a lovely Scottish accent :P (Yes I am aware of how sad I sound).

I loved the addition of new characters, John Barrowman as Captain Jack was especially fabulous and the spin off Torchwood series was good. I loved the fact that the doctor was truly in love with Rose (Billy Piper) and she wasn’t just another assistant, it was fun seeing the two of them share their adventures together. I cried (a lot) when Rose got trapped in another parallel universe so the doctor and Rose could never meet again thus their love story was cut short. With a broken hearted doctor, I eventually welcomed Martha Jones as the new assistant - even though I was annoyed that she was trying to take Rose’s place (do I sound obsessed much?! lol!). I was shell shocked when another Time lord was discovered, who was soo evil that he tried to kill the doctor and destroy the world. Thankfully Martha was around to save the day (I'm starting to like her now, can you tell? :P). Later with Martha's depature, I was saddened to see the doctor alone once again but was pleased when he found his new assistant in the form of Donna Noble. Funny moments followed, as well as surprises (i.e. the doctor had a daughter), Donna helped save the world (Bloody daleks, you can never get rid of em’) and it was nice to see that Donna was a genuine friend that the doctor could rely on.

So in 2008, when David Tennant announced he was leaving I was genuinely saddened! And once again the papers went mad speculating on who be the new doctor; would it be a prominent black actor, a woman perhaps? Secretly I wished Tennant would think he had made a mistake, change his mind and rejoin, lol. But no after the promise of four special episodes to last us till 2010, David Tennant was gone. The first of the specials was aired on Christmas day followed by an announcement of who would be the new doctor... presenting Matt Smith! Ta da! Don’t know who he is? Yea me neither. But then again I hadn’t really heard of David Tennant before Dr Who. Matt Smith ... he has um floppy hair. That is all I know! Oh I so hope he is a good doctor... even though I have a soft spot for David Tennant :P

The doctor: David Tennant Vs Matt Smith

Any excuse to show a picture of David Tennant! :P

Honesty is the best policy

Reading the sun newspaper online - what? I needed a study break – this article made me smile. It’s nice to see that there are some people in the world that are honest and trustworthy :) Though I dare say that thanks to the paper, thieves now know where the best place is to go for a spot of stealing!

ARTICLE:

TRUSTING Tom Algie left his shop unattended for a day off — and made £187 from his honest customers.
Dad-of-two Tom, 47, fancied a day with his family but didn’t want to shut his DIY store.
So he made an honesty box out of a bucket, a tube and a funnel, then left it on the counter with a note reading: “Please choose the items you want and place the right money inside.”
He returned that evening to find takings of £187.66 and two euros. Nothing had been stolen or damaged.
Customers in scenic Settle, North Yorks, even wrote notes thanking Tom. One said, “This is why we moved to Settle,” while another wrote, “This has made my day.”
Settle has a population of 2,100, but serves a wider rural area and has about 100 shops.
Tom said: “I didn’t think twice about leaving the shop open. Settle is a lovely quiet town, there’s never any trouble here. I put faith in my customers and I wasn’t disappointed.
“It’s nice to know there are a lot of good honest people out there and not everything is all doom and gloom.”