Finals are almost done!

Behold! Most of my finals have now been reduced to ash before the fire of my intellect. Only two remain, the Living Anatomy cadaver lab tomorrow and the Medical Chinese final on Friday. I can see them in my mind's eye, cowering there in the future, clutching pitifully at each other for fear of the terrible clarity that I shall bring. So yeah, it's been going pretty well.

But, sadly, not all is wine and roses here in Seattle. There has been a tragic passing and as is fitting I have composed an elegy.

In Memoriam: Tacos Guaymos

(??/?/???? - 12/5/2008)

Alas! No more the diner

Where soul-tattered, tired

Cold and hungry I could go

And eat tasty taco-wagon style

Burritos

That were reasonably-priced.

See! The blank signs

The dark windows and locked doors.

Why did they close?

So scrumptious, so true to their roots.

Even when you didn't get you burrito to go

They would still wrap it in foil

And then set it on a plate.

Now the only mexican food

That is close, accessible

Is Taco Time or Mazatlan.

Taco Time puts celery in their

Veggie burritos. Also too much sauce.

Mazatlan is bland and over-priced.

I am undone, adrift without direction

Abandoned and unfed.

I really hope that my TEARS OF JOY don't damage my keyboard. It comes out December 4th, which is perfect since I wasn't planning on doing any schoolwork during winter quarter anyway.

Just a couple of additions.

If you're interested in seeing some other photos of the Haunted Trails, it would be a good idea to click here. The very happy Sweeney Todd is a friend of mine named Keelan. Also, it's important to note that while some of the costumes do not look very scary in the photos the effect is much different when they are lunging at you out of a dark forest. Apparently Saturday night was a record-breaker, with around 1,100 to 1,200 patrons going through the trail.

Also, I just learned the worst acupuncture points ever. The first is stomach 1, AKA Cheng'qi or Container of Tears. It's located directly below the pupil between the eyeball and the infraorbital ridge. To needle the point you apparently have to have the patient close their eyes and then use one finger to gently push the eyeball out of the way before inserting the needle. The textbook goes on to mention that according to classical texts, this point is contraindicated to moxibustion. Oh really, you shouldn't put stuff there and then set it on fire? I would not have guessed. So you may be wondering what this point treats. Well, apparently it's good for, among other things, redness, swelling and pain of the eyes. So . . . Visine or NEEDLE IN THE EYE SOCKET!!!! I have one or two guesses as to why it's called the Container of Tears.

Anyway, the other point is the fourth point on the Large Intestine channel. It's located halfway down the first metacarpal on the radial side. It's good for quite a range of large intestine disorders as well and cold sweats and it alleviates pain throughout the body. There aren't any big arteries or nerves near it and it actually gets used quite a lot, so go LI-4! The only unfortunate thing about this point is that if you use it on a pregnant woman it can cause a miscarriage. Just one more area where good communication skills are vitally important.

So that's all for now, just thought I'd share.

Haunted Trails and Such

Well haunted trails has happened. For those of you unfamiliar with the event, it's a annual fund-raiser put on by the AOM department to help students pay for a five-week externship in China at the end of their third year. The haunted trail runs through a series of set scenes including "Insane Asylum," "Creepy Clowns," "Sweeney Todd," and "Graveyard." In between the scenes are scary props and, most importantly, trail-haunters whose job is to jump out and frighten people, or sneak up behind them, or whisper creepy things from the shadows--basically anything they think will scare people. They just aren't allowed to touch anyone and, of course, the patrons are not allowed to touch the performers. Apparently the second group that went through got so freaked out that they had to be escourted out one of the emergency exits. So yeah, very scary stuff.

I was a trail-haunter and was thus able to spend a very rewarding evening as a human jack-in-the-box. After a bit of experimentation I found that the best way to scare people was to crouch down in the bushes just off the trail and then scurry out on all fours making hissing noises and swiping at people's legs with my big scary hand. I could tell I was doing a good job when people started swearing at me. One of the pictures is of me in costume. I was mistaken at least twice for Freddy Krueger, whose picture I have also included for the sake of comparison. I can see how people would get confused seeing as how the costumes are so very similar; what with the hat, the red-striped shirt, the burned face and the razor-glove. Sigh.

Which reminds me. So we're in TCM Fundamentals class and the teacher mentions a classic TCM medical text which was written around 400 BC. Up shoots a classmate's hand. The question: "Was that when China became Communist?" Yes, yes it was. The Communist Manifesto was written just a few years before that. In runes. On bark. Sigh.

Week 1!

So at this point I've been to all of the classes that I'll be taking this quarter except Tui Na (Chinese Therapeutic Massage) and Medical Chinese I, which only meet on Friday. My favorites so far have been Meridians and Points and, surprisingly, Living Anatomy.

My fondness for Living Anatomy is due in large part to the dedication and enthusiasm of the instructor, Dr. Love. On the first day of class she arrived in a skeleton outfit complete with a full skull mask. She has an interesting academic background, which included stints as student of Veterinary Medicine and, if I recall correctly, Nursing.

The main theme that has been stressed in both Living Anatomy and Meridians and Points is the necessity of developing strong palpation skills so that we can accurately locate anatomical structures and, therefore, the associated accupuncture points. Apparently when it comes to placing Accupuncture needles, "Somewhere around here" doesn't cut it. I'm trying to come up with ways to improve the tactile sensitivity in my fingertips. One suggestion the anatomy book gave was to put a hair under a single page of a phonebook and work on being able to locate the hair by touch, then trying to find it through two pages, three pages, etc. Practitioners of TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) have to develop their sense of touch to a particularly high degree. One story that Benjamin Apichaiw, my Chi Gong instructor, shared with the class was that in ancient China it was considered improper for doctors to touch female patients, which obviously made taking the pulse a bit problematic. So the doctors would tie a string around the female patient's wrist, pull the cord taut and then feel the pulse on the string--a sort of tactile version of the famous tin-can-telephone arrangement.

So classes are going very well, though I still haven't gotten my first Grad PLUS loan dispursement and so have not yet been able to buy my books. Fortunately, all of the course textbooks are on hold in the library, and can be checked out for two hour periods. Thanks to that arrangement I've been able to keep up with the assigned reading for my classes. I am looking forward, of course, to being able to study whenever and wherever I want.

Loyal Websterians will see in all this, of course, certain inescapable similarities to points and observations made in my earlier essay "Sign . . . Sign . . . Symbol!: An Exploration of the Interplay Between Children's Games and Literary Analysis in England and the United States (1897 - 1922)". But, naturally enough, I don't have time to rehash all that here. I hope to do another post this weekend, but the manifold vissicitudes of fate being what they are that may or may not come to fruition.

Oh, hi there!

Thanks for dropping by but unfortunately you've caught me at a bad time. You see, this blog is supposed to be about things I've learned at Bastyr University and, unfortunately, I'm not actually at Bastyr just yet. Please check back in late September. Once I am at school this blog will update at least once each week.