The meaning of sarcasm

Today was
one of those amazing days where everything was going perfectly. I woke up and
felt really perky and excited for the coming 4 hour seminar on Health
Promotions. I was so sure that it would be brilliant that I jumped right out
and of bed, put on my best cloths, ate a filling 16 course meal and teleported
to university to avoid traffic.

After my
short, traffic-free trip to university I was so HAPPY to discover that the
seminar hadn’t started despite my late arrival. One the woman who was running
it opened her mouth I knew that I was, a) In love and b) About to specialise in
Health Promotions. Her lecture was not at all esoteric and probably applied to more
than 4 Eskimos living in Kiriat Arba. I was especially pleased at how long and
stimulating the lecture was.

Throughout
the time that I spent attentively pay attention to the lecture and not reading
my book, trying to sleep, looking around for ways to end my pitiful existence or
planning my escape route to the door, I was reflecting on how much I was
gaining from the lecture, how much of a good investment my petrol was getting
their, and how much less I would be learning if, let say, I spent four hours
trying to cure cancer with my mind alone.

We had a brief
and really meaningful group meeting after the lecture with our site facilitator
and the other Khayelitsha group. I really felt that I grew as a person from the
lecture.

After
experiencing absolutely no traffic on the N2 between the Obs Main Road on-ramp
and Black River parkway N1 off-ramp I went to Centaury City to try find a
birthday present for a friend, buy an sms voucher and ring-reinforces. It was a
really good thing that pick ‘n’ pay, click and 2 other shops I had to back
track to to get the ring reinforces all had ring-reinforces, cause else I would
have been fuming and ready to go on a homicidal rampage.

I got home
and decided to direct my new-found euphoria on something productive, so I phone
my medical aid and spoke so politely and caringly to two staff members about a
third staff member who never returns my calls or does anything that any living
creature, from diatom to dinosaur would consider work.

I napped

What an amazing
day.

Tonight I
plan to look up the meaning of sarcasm.

powered by performancing firefox

Epi never after

Today was a
good day for epidemiology. Well, I don’t know if its fair of just to say that
any day is good or bad for epidemiology, but you know what I mean? Me neither. I
woke up with the sunrise at 6h30 and went to rehearse our presentation. We
arrived late and were meant to go first, but wound up having to go second. The
presentation went very well, everybody spoke well and there were very few problems.
People later commented that ours was the best, but people rarely mean that.

We then
spent a few hours in the computer labs finishing off our written report. We
managed to get it printed by our project supervisor, which I am very thankful.
Overall I am very happy with it. I am so thankful for my amazing group.

I finished
at 3, so I went to aftercare where I met up with an old friend who it was
excellent to see.

I went to
the bayit and hung out there for an hour, which was also decent.

I’m tired

powered by performancing firefox

The project

This week
we have spent hours and hours in the computer lab. My project group is amazing
and I have been and continue to be happy and excited to work with them. The
members of the group are dynamic, responsible, and ready to accept and give
constructive criticism. They work hard and all contribute.

I spent
about 14 hours in the past 2 days in the computer labs.

Last night
my dad, step mom and I went out for supper with my dad’s life long friends from
Israel.
The guy is very funny and I feel very connected with both him and his wife. At
a point during the night he was getting my dad riled up about getting a fast internet
connection and my dad snapped at him and in doing so said some not too nice
things about me. He then apologised afterwards and again today. I feel no sense
of anger and have let go of the issue.

Tomorrow we
are presenting our project and Thursday we need to hand in our report. There is
still some work to go, but I think we’ll be good.

powered by performancing firefox

Sleeping

Last night I did not sleep well at all. The past few nights
I have been very disorientated lying in bed. I know where I am, but I feel disorientated to where exactly in space I
am in my room. The coupled with the relative discomfort within my body I
struggled to sleep for a long time. I woke up early, but went back to sleep
again.  

I got up in
the late morning and had a quiet reflective day.

Sleep is one of the few, if not only things that I find
relaxes me. I always seem to only be able to sleep when I need to get up, but I
suppose that’s a normal phenomenon. 

This week looks like its going to hold an interesting
combination of very boring lectures and very stressful due dates for projects
and presentations.

Public health! yay

powered by performancing firefox

Day to day 2 day too day

On Friday I
went to my GP work-shadow for the morning. He is really an inspiring person. He
has achieved a lot of different, amazing feats in his life and career. He is a
living, breathing, functioning example of exactly what we have been taught to
be like. We saw a wide variety of patients. Most of which had mild things wrong
with them.

One patient
whom really stands out was an elderly woman who came in for a first
consultation. She had had 3 bouts of bowel cancer which resulted in her having
no colon left. This causes her to have very rapid transit time through her
intestines, with limited absorption and lots of water loss. He was clearly not
happy, wasted and shaky. He had had chemotherapy, radiotherapy and a fractured
hip in the past year. It was quite a difficult thing to deal with. The only
thing which kept me feeling alright during and after the consultation was the
amazing warmth and hope that my GP had and gave to her. The consultation was
juxtaposed with a paediatric consultation next. Circles of life.

We met our
public health project co-ordinator who wasn’t too helpful. The 3 Xhosa speaking
members of our group offered to do the remaining summarising of the radio shows
by themselves at some point during the weekend, for which I am extremely
grateful.

I went to
the airport to pay the taxes on my ticket to Joburg to visit my 2 closest
friends. I fixed a new clients computer.

I then went
to do my weekly nag session. We had quite a good time. Another friend met up
with us at the end.

I then went
to my regular friends for Shabbat dinner. The father forgot to bench. It was
amazing. First time ever.

Then off to
the Habonim meeting. It was on quite an interesting topic – genetic alteration
of embryos to enhance intelligence. There was a friend there that I see
infrequently, which was nice.

I slept
like shit last night and consequently slept late today. I finished book 9 of
the Wheel Of Time series today and plan on getting going on the next one
soonish. I also want to sit down a bit and work out what exactly I am trying to
get out of life. Today I wasn’t in the right space for doing that. It’s one of
those tasks that I do not exactly jump towards. It is overwhelming and
difficult and often produces more questions than it answers.

powered by performancing firefox

More ranting about the driver

Last night, after an enjoyable supper and work session, I received a message from a friend informing me that our site co-ordinator wants us to come to the site tomorrow so that we can work on our reflective commentaries. I had a bad feeling about it, but went anyway. It was raining and the shuttle driver was different. On the N2 highway, in traffic, the driver dropped us on the side of the road near another health science shuttle which had the dick driver in it. Why this manoeuvre was done, I do not know, it got us wet and was dangerous.

We arrived on site and our site facilitator spent all of 10 minutes working with us on reflective commentaries, then we spent 2 hours and 50 minutes doing nothing because the bus driver’s a dick. We spoke shit, walked around Khayelisha a bit. Spoke shit, did nothing, wasted our lives.

We then went to the computer labs to do work, but the entire lab was booked for something else. Another wasted fucking day thanks to the university’s transport policies and drivers.

powered by performancing firefox

The second bus driver from hell

On Monday while we were working efficiently in the computer lab on our project the doos bus driver was getting angry. The bus driver was very upset that his bus wasn’t full. He decided that best way to deal with his anger was to take it out on our venue supervisor so that she would refuse to bring the CD of data we needed into university when she came in for another meeting, and thereby force us to come in an hour early and go to Khayelitsha for no reason.

I did not go to Khayelitsha. I wrote an angry letter to the faculty and met a course convener about the predicament. I then went home.

In the night I went out for supper with an old friend who is doing a lot of amazing things with her life. It was a good evening. I then went to the bayit where I hung out and smoked nag with assorted people. We watched some classic Simpsons and then I sat around and chatted with people until about 2. I got home, checked up on facebook, read some emails and went to bed. 

Today I woke up fucking late. Did nothing. My dad’s childhood friend is in town. I know him from my gap year to Israel and it feels really good to see him. We have been talking shit for a while now. Another couple arrived who did not notice that I existed.

We are being forced to go back to Khayelitsha again tomorrow. I am very unhappy.

powered by performancing firefox

The past while – pretty decent but none too exciting

The last few days have been an interesting combination of good and boring.

On Wednesday it was my sister’s 21st birthday. It has not been an easy road for either of us to get as far as we have, and I realised that while writing her a stern yet encouraging letter. The actual occasion was marked by my dad, mom, step-mom sister and sister friend all going out for Chinese. This was an immensely stressful occasion for all parties involved. My sister and I were the only people not drinking for stress reasons. Overall it was a tame and pleasant night. My mom and step-mom seemed to be getting on smashingly. I bonded with my sister’s friend a bit.

We visited our research site and hand numerous problems there. The computer on which they record all their radio shows had a software issue resulting in all recording before 14/01/2007 to be deleted from their system. Our sampling frame was November to January, so we had to change that. It also was brought to our attention that, despite what we had been told previously, there was in fact quite a lot of HIV discussion on the radio, forcing us to include an extra 3 full days of radio recording into our sampling frame. We got photocopies of their advertising programming.

During the following 2 days we spent an obscene amount of time working on the literature review. My group is cool, so I didn’t mind. My flash drive got absorbed into the University of Cape Town.

On Friday I went to go job shadow an amazing GP. I saw a lot of very hectic patients which was interesting. The doctor I was shadowing was the living example of the type of doctor we are taught to be, without any bitterness, cynicism or negativity. It was refreshing and inspiring. Then, as juxtaposition we had a meeting with our project supervisor. He was late and the meeting had no point. This is not a fault of his, it was just a pointless meeting.

I then went to fix a friend’s computer and watched some star wars. After that I hung out with another friend on UCT rugby field in the most perfect spot. We smoked nag and I had a smashing time. Then to my usual friends for the holy Sabbath, which was enjoyable as always.

I then went to the Habonim meeting where they had this decent activity on criticising Israel. I was quite bored through parts of it, but it was an original methodology at least. The beginning part we were split into boys and girls. The guy running the program told me early to be as out of control as possible for the first part, so I wrote the super hectic note to a chick that I thought was somebody, but it turned out it was another person who was in standard 9. I felt super bad and nearly ran away. It was the most hectic note of all time. I was nominated for the Guinness book of world records.

Saturday I slept all day. It was unbelievable. I went to my sister’s 21st party where I sat and spoke to people. One of them was trying to tell me that ARVs were not the answers and people could survive for 15 years on a healthy diet. They eventually got the point and left. I then went to the bayit and hung out a while

Today I went to an engagement party. I chose them an awesome present from 5 of us and then arrived 3 hours early. I went to the bayit again and hung out and hand an awesome time. The party was good, good food, decent people.

powered by performancing firefox

The past while – pretty decent but none too exciting

The last few days have been an interesting combination of good and boring.

On Wednesday it was my sister’s 21st birthday. It has not been an easy road for either of us to get as far as we have, and I realised that while writing her a stern yet encouraging letter. The actual occasion was marked by my dad, mom, step-mom sister and sister friend all going out for Chinese. This was an immensely stressful occasion for all parties involved. My sister and I were the only people not drinking for stress reasons. Overall it was a tame and pleasant night. My mom and step-mom seemed to be getting on smashingly. I bonded with my sister’s friend a bit.

We visited our research site and hand numerous problems there. The computer on which they record all their radio shows had a software issue resulting in all recording before 14/01/2007 to be deleted from their system. Our sampling frame was November to January, so we had to change that. It also was brought to our attention that, despite what we had been told previously, there was in fact quite a lot of HIV discussion on the radio, forcing us to include an extra 3 full days of radio recording into our sampling frame. We got photocopies of their advertising programming.

During the following 2 days we spent an obscene amount of time working on the literature review. My group is cool, so I didn’t mind. My flash drive got absorbed into the University of Cape Town.

On Friday I went to go job shadow an amazing GP. I saw a lot of very hectic patients which was interesting. The doctor I was shadowing was the living example of the type of doctor we are taught to be, without any bitterness, cynicism or negativity. It was refreshing and inspiring. Then, as juxtaposition we had a meeting with our project supervisor. He was late and the meeting had no point. This is not a fault of his, it was just a pointless meeting.

I then went to fix a friend’s computer and watched some star wars. After that I hung out with another friend on UCT rugby field in the most perfect spot. We smoked nag and I had a smashing time. Then to my usual friends for the holy Sabbath, which was enjoyable as always.

I then went to the Habonim meeting where they had this decent activity on criticising Israel. I was quite bored through parts of it, but it was an original methodology at least. The beginning part we were split into boys and girls. The guy running the program told me early to be as out of control as possible for the first part, so I wrote the super hectic note to a chick that I thought was somebody, but it turned out it was another person who was in standard 9. I felt super bad and nearly ran away. It was the most hectic note of all time. I was nominated for the Guinness book of world records.

Saturday I slept all day. It was unbelievable. I went to my sister’s 21st party where I sat and spoke to people. One of them was trying to tell me that ARVs were not the answers and people could survive for 15 years on a healthy diet. They eventually got the point and left. I then went to the bayit and hung out a while

Today I went to an engagement party. I chose them an awesome present from 5 of us and then arrived 3 hours early. I went to the bayit again and hung out and hand an awesome time. The party was good, good food, decent people.

powered by performancing firefox

The forth the fifth

Today was
an interesting day, a mixture of bitter sweet good bad and other stuff.

On the way
into my lecture I happened to be arriving at the same time as a friend whose
been ignoring the shit out of me, so I took it in my stride and had a short
chat with them about it. I feel that chat did not resolve anything as I do not
suspect the person was quite honest with me… whatever.

After that
I spent 10 to the power 32907 hours working on small sections of our literature
review for our project. I summarised people’s article summaries, then I collated
and added. Then we met our project supervisor who told us that we were not
doing the correct thing for our project’s literature review so we spent another
million hours re-collating and sorting through our literature review. During
this time I lost all my will to live and read up about poisons on Wikipedia.

I took an
incredibly long and stupid route in lifting to friend’s home to their res,
which I passed en route to the wrong res, then had to go back. Then I went back
onto the highway which was ridiculously congested with the traffic that I
failed to notice less than 2 minutes earlier, so I took the nearest off-ramp
and went to go chill and smoke nag with some friends. The chilling with friends
was amazing and I had a great time.

I then went
out with an amazing girl who is not interested in dating me. We had a lovely
time and I’m sure I’ll see her again.

On the
radio a man by the name of Adolph phoned into to Gareth Cliff’s show. He wanted
to say something, but got cut-off. Gareth then told KB that he knew exactly
what Adolph wanted and proceeded to play a clip of Adolph Hitler making a speech
from the holocaust. I nearly had a car accident. It was too funny

powered by performancing firefox