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New website!

October 19, 2010

Hello all!

James and Rob have tweaked around and now we have my website on a new wordpress install!

Supercheryl.net still works as long as my domain redirection works :D

RSS feeds are here

Forgive the ongoing tweaks, and most of all, enjoy!

Ralph Waldo Emerson’s definition of success

September 21, 2010

Success is to laugh often and much, to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.

Abrahamic creationism.

September 18, 2010

Church is all good and benign, but what do you do when they tell you to stick evolution in the bin?

Yes.  Serenading the serotonin out of our neurons is great condition for generating new ideas and epiphanies… But why block the questions?

I have far too many!  It is disturbing and I cannot stop them.  Just like how I was disruptive and frustrated at catechism, I suspect I will have a long way to go and perhaps be making it my life’s mission to reconcile advancing human thought and the practice and justification of organised religion.

Which medical specialty?

September 13, 2010

African Journey.

To prove a point that career support and guidance for medics in the UK is sporadic at best, and that no one can decide on their specialties with so little experience in it…
I had wanted to do O+G since 4th year of med school.  Where is it on the list of recommended specialties?  Bottom!
I do however like general internal medicine and i’m enjoying every bit of it.  Veering towards Neuro and Rheum based on intellectual stimulation, and lifestyle.  We’ll see!  Let’s get the basics tied together first.  I have a year to complete my internal med syllabus before I choose further specialization!  (Vying for a few months off to travel, reconnect and be open up to even more possibilities!)
Medical specialties Aptitude Test
For those of you after some career advice, I would recommend the following sites. Not forgetting some time set aside for the groundwork of really sussing out your priorities in life, and chatting to your seniors.
[*edit:  As I publish this, the BMJ news has just announced a new website rightspeciality.org created by doctors for Foundation 2 doctors specifically, choosing between medicine/surgery/o&g/paeds/radiology/GP and so on.  Seniors can contribute to the data collection process!]

Ten years of blogging!

September 9, 2010
Heartache Is Boring

Image via Wikipedia

Holy shit!  I decided to zip back to the blog of the olden days, (which is now private!  Allow me to come to terms with myself before I re-post everything.)  and bejeezus, it’s been a decade!

What have I found?  I’ve found that this factual and inorganic writing is boring as crap, and the meandering rubbish, self exploration and journaling was juicy stuff, and astutely written!

This grown up life is killing my creativity.  As I’ve inadvertently judged others I’ve expected others to judge me and now I’m boring as hell.

I need to focus on shining through and staying dry in this freaking rain-before-the-rainbow, and start dreaming again about what my rainbow shall be.

Like my dear friend Khalid said.  Remember this til you die, “Never be a quitter”.

Peace, love and kisses to the invisible blog hoppers, the privileged ears to my life’s confessions.  May these simple epiphanies lighten your burden in your journey of life.

pick a quote and stick to it.

September 8, 2010

“life is what happens while you’re making other plans “, but…
“if you want the rainbow, you have to put up with the rain”

pick one Cheryl, just f*cken pick one.

What is the optimum sleep duration?

September 4, 2010
alarm clock, bought from IKEA

Image via Wikipedia

So…how much sleep should we plan for, each night?

In a recent study of 3,430 chinese adults, a group of public health clinicians looked into the relationship between duration of sleep and cerebrovascular disease and all cause mortality.  A linear association with CVD was found, and a U shape was found for all cause mortality.

This means the more you sleep, the more prone you are to developing cardiovascular disease.  I guess if you’re less active your heart isn’t going to be so toned.  Regarding all cause mortality, insomniacs and those who sleep more than 9h a night had the worst deal.  It goes on to suggest 7-8hours being linked to fewer deaths.

Not too long after, Carpuccio et al noted there was increasing evidence of the above, and went on to do a systematic review and meta analysis of 16 qualifying studies carried out in 1966-2009.   From that they concluded that both short and long duration of sleep are significant predictors of death in prospective population studies.

In any case, I do feel dead with any less than 8hours and after any significant amount above 9hours’.

MRCP I pearls, the ultimate resource!

August 31, 2010
Stupid Exam.

Image by purplepick via Flickr

Many thanks to the predecessors who ammased great resources and shared them via the www.  Here is the cream of the crop, high yield knowledge!

There are loads on the net, but do not get distracted (like i did, looking for resources for you!).  Apart from the few key things to memorise, there is nothing that is going to replace question crunching, hundreds and thousands of them, like a machine.

Use Passmedicine, Pastest and Onexamination to your preference.  Books are overrated.  Save them for when you’re not studying for exams, and for tried and trusted non-pharmacological insomnia therapy.

  • http://mrcp1and2.blogspot.com by a Malaysian doctor who regularly posts pearls.  It already full of concise and recurrent MRCP topics, explained very simply!
  • A free ten week course by Dr Peter Windross to supplement and spur you on in your revision best for when you hit that brickwall (it will happen at some point or other), with very effective flash cards of recurrent topics and ridiculously random but recurrent facts.  Also includes finals and OSCE stuff.

Other high yield stuff here!

100 most common questions in the RxPg forum

Channelopathies 101 – The elusive Bartters, Gitelman’s and Liddles in one digestable page!

High yield Basic sciences, Renal, Cardio etc notes at MRCPass

Hell, have it all here!

Human knowledge belongs to all.

13 rules of leadership by Colin Powell

August 28, 2010

1.  It ain’t as bad as you think, it will look better in the morning.

2.  Get mad, then get over it.

3.  Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it

4.  It can be done.

5.  Be careful whom you choose.

6. Don’t let adverse facts stand in the way of a good decision.

7.  You can’t make someone else’s decisions.  Don’t let someone else make yours.

8. Check small things.

9.  Share credit.

10.  Remain calm.  Be kind.

11.  Have a vision.  Be demanding.

12.  Don’t take counsel of your fears or naysayers.

13.  Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier

-Colin Powell, 65th Secretary of State USA (2001–2005)

Religion and Psychiatry

August 1, 2010

Is it really all that bad…

that I cannot help from thinking of religion from a purely psychological point of view?

Here’s a justifying essay from the Royal College of Psychiatrists about this.

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