Thursday, a Day in the Life: I wonder if Klause Grawe ever got puked on?

There is a time to worry about papers, and a time to swim with sharks. I spoke last time about Buddhist Mindfulness I learned about when I was preparing for the interview for UQ. I spoke about “knowing what time it is” while I was on Morton Island, and knowing that its not time to write a paper.

This week was different: I’ve written 343 pages of suggesting and proposing a theory of something that might be somewhat valid – as per psychological research; its all an argument as to what might be happening.

This week is what I expected out of graduate school. Rather than boring you with what I’ve learnt over the last 3 weeks, I’ve decided to show you what its like living in beautiful (and rainey) Brisbane.

It goes like this: I woke up at 7 on Thursday and hung out with Jason and Deb, had a shower, then, sent a few emails and made a few phone calls. 

7:02 AM

9:00 AM 

After the intro, I went to see what Thursday is like:

Thursday was reading Klause Grawe's Neuropsychotherapy, chapter 2: 112 pages of amygdalas, hypothalamues, limbic systems, dopamine, neuron receptors, dendrites, and the arcanity that is Neurobiology. 

I didn't have the text book, as there were only 10 available 2 weeks ago. I needed breakfast and assumed a book store down the street would have my book. I took a shower and ran down to Taringa food market, which became an opportunity in something i've always wanted to do: get in a figher-jet.

9:04 AM

I ran into this guy who was on his way to the physio clinic for a his achilles tendon which he hurt getting out of the "bloddy aircraft."

We'll get back to that...much, later. Back to Thursday....

Thats a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich. 

A coke,

And a potato. 

...life is expensive here.

9:13 AM

I said goodbye to Alice and Sherice who run this food market. Had my breakfast and searched for this book. I called 10 places...

 I've always thought this was funny...

 

9:32 AM Train: 

The humor from that ad was quickly diminished by the anger that was not finding this book. My book store where I've gotten all of my books did not have it and well, its not time to worry about that anymore. The library on campus has it, that just means that I'm on campus all day, not at a coffee shop. 

I took the 9:34 train from taringa to toowong:

Toowong:

Pissed by the book stores not having the book I needed, I decided on the ferry and headed to campus:

5 minutes walk from Toowong is the Regatta Ferry Terminal: 

9:47 AM: I'm off to campus

Through the great court, is the library:

9:53 AM: 

The book I need is on a 2 hour loan, which means I get to know the ladies working the library very well. Pissed by the fact that I cannot buy the book myself, I head down to Wordsmiths, one of my favourite spots on campus. Here is my walk: 

10:00 AM

That bird you see is an ibis, they are all over and well, you'll see can be a bit of a pain of the ass...

Damn birds...

2:02 PM

4 hours later I realised I needed to turn this book back in (again),  I said hello to the ladies who know me very well by now. Each time I've got to wait 15 minutes to get the book back...a bit annoying but it has to be done. So back to the library I go:

5:05 PM

 I get kicked out of Wordsmiths, apparently they close at 5. So I head back to the library, and find a quite spot to sort out how our brains work...

10:32 PM

I finish Grawe's beef on behavior and the brain, and realised that I was wrong with the way I approached the patients at that hospital - a feeling way too common with everything I read here. 

That maybe why I find myself in debt. 

I learned how to deal with patients; how to create new neural pathways or mirror neurons. How to use the brain to create new behaviours, or use the neurons to create new neurons. Blown away by this research I leave campus and head to the swamp...

 

10:52 PM

Dinner: a burger, cheesecake, and a bag of potato chips.

Dinner at damn.near 11. That reminds me of hospital life, living a job, not working it. Dinner at 11, that reminds me of college too.

This week as been nuts. Thursday was no different from Wednesday or the previous days before that. I like being busy. I love learning what I did wrong at that hospital, and how I can be better. I like thinking about that place and bringing it up in class. 

I like thinking about what I said to those kiddos, but, thinking about how I said it.

I love thinking about those terrible days at that hospital: shit.filled bathtubs, getting spit on on thanksgiving, getting puked on, getting peed on, or the infamous 'code-browns.' i love thinking about those 4 terrible days throughout the week, and that 1 good one. 

i love thinking about what these dry.erase.markers I used in 4 contents. 

I love living in Australia and beg for that day off I have tomorrow. I hope I find a kangaroo, but rather sit.down with my neuropsyche professor about all of what I read from Klause. I'd rather think about what Klause thinks, and about what Choice Theory would suggest. 

Maybe one day I'll leave that pdf i just downloaded for a kangaroo, or for a fighter-jet...

Live high, ya'll. 








 

Morton Island and Buddah: The Brillance of Time Off

There are times to write a paper, and there are times to drink beer. There are times to have a victory massage in Austin, and there is a time to run a code at a hospital. There are times to walk along the Great Wall of China, a time for Stonehenge in College, for PICU in Austin, and there is a time in this crazy life to hang out at the Colosseum. 

Yesterday however, was not the time to worry about the papers I have due next week:

 

When I was getting ready for the interview for school, I started preparing myself on what UQ was all about - what their epistemology is. It boils down to a brilliant point one of my professors made: 

"the best theory, is one you make up every time you see a client. All of the theories fit together, but the words don't."  

(god i love school)

Another thing they're teaching me is something called "mindfulness" which is basically knowing "what time it is."

It is not time to worry about school: 

 

Grad school is a marathon. I'm worried that I'm not working hard enough some weeks, and overworking others. At the end of the day, its a 40 hour a week job on good weeks, 60 on normal weeks, and 80 on tough weeks. I'd like to think its the same work-week for everyone else, no?

 There is enough time in the week for me to enjoy what Australia, UQ, the Quest Society and life in general has to offer. Things I'll rarely have the opportunity to do, like sand-boarding in a desert.

Rare things, like snorkeling around old ship wrecks. 

Quest is a society of foreign exchange students run by Australian's. They take us all over, Byron Bay a few weekends ago, and now Morton Island...all of an hour and a half out of the city. My goal one night during our camp fire was to:

(a) meet everyone, and,
(b) get a picture with the nationalities represented.

France

Germany

 Ireland

Norway

Australia (obvioulsy, haha)

Canada.

The things I'll rarely have the opportunity to do:

Sand-board in a desert, snorkel with sharks, meet the people above on an island in Australia. Things like, running a code at a hospital, having a victory massage after getting into UQ, walking Stonehenge, the great wall, or the Colosseum. Jumping out a plane, or riding across the Korean coast line.

I've finally been able to pull all that motorcyle-riding, sky-diving, sand-boarding, into something that matters. I did it in an American hospital, a Korean classroom, and now an Australian University.

I think that is what keeps me going here; knowing that there is more to learn, more to see, more people to meet, more things to do, in all aspects of life - both professional and personal. It has me going to bed with a goofy-ass smile on my face and bouncing out of bed in the morning with that same smile. 

That cognition forces me to think about what I want to do, all-day-every-day. What's next?!?

That cognition doesn't belong in Morton, or for that matter, on this brilliant night in Brisbane. Its not time (at all) to work in Busan, Beijing, or Rome. Its not time to think about the massive paper I'll be working on all week, its not time to go to work, or ride a bike...it was time to worry about that shark. 

Buddhist mindfulness kept me from getting bit by a shark. 

Me and this crazy life will get there. (there, read: corner-offer at UT and a grown-up life). Its not time for that yet though. 

I'm just a young man living to make me old.

Live high, ya'll.