Neuroscience

All right ladies, this story is one for the books.

So this morning we had our second neuroscience test. After not performing so well on the first one, I made sure to go to as many classes as humanly possible and to not skip, despite class being at 8 AM. The only times I didn't go to class was when I was going to catch my flight to Chicago. Anyways, so this exam was on the PCML, ALS, Auditory, Taste, Olfaction, Visual, Vestibular, and Visual Motor stuff of the brain. Essentially what the sensory neurons are, what part of the brain it goes to, how does it get there, what are all the different cell types involved, what artery supplies that area, and some clinical concerns. Alhamdulillah as I've been going to class more or less everything makes sense - not like some of the other classes where you need to just memorize different languages.

Anyways, last week my plan was to finish all studying by Friday so that all day Saturday and Sunday I could review the material with other people. The best way to learn something difficult is when you grab the notes and someone else has a copy and you two just take turns firing questions back and forth. I wanted to do that all weekend. Needless to say, it didn't happen. As a matter of fact, I didn't finish going through all the material for the first time around until last night around 6 or 7 ish. And a huge population of my classmates were in the same boat, if not worse.

The problem was, just as it always is, the sheer volume of information that you need to fit into your brain in an organized way with the short short short time that you have. Your ability to succeed in higher levels of schooling is directly proportional to one's ability to slowly and steadily keep on filing away information in your brain by managing your time to the minute.

To make a long story short, it was imperative that I find a study buddy to reinforce as much material as possible, considering that it took me about a week to finish all material once, and now its 12 hours before the exam; we need some synergy action to maximize our time at this point.

So I find this kid, Asim. He's from Chicago too, we actually went to the same undergrad. Masha Allah very smart kid, very well-disciplined, and a hard worker. When I say disciplined, I mean that I've seen students sit down to study and not get up. Ever. For me, I go 30-35 minutes strong, then I take a 10 minute break. If I try to change that strategy, then I will waste time. But anyways, the main idea is I found someone to study with and who was willing to grind it out throughout most of the night.

We study, we study, we study. At first the plan was to sleep by 2 or 3 am. Then it was to sleep for 2 hours after fajr. I told him by the time we are done with fajr it will be 5 am and the test is at 7. And he says no its at 7:30. This is where I say "Are you SURE?" and he goes yea. Then I say, aiight cool. But we get tired by 3, 3:30 then we decide to pray witr and sleep for an hour, then get up pray fajr and study again then.

The thing was we were at this kid's apartment named Akber who was in Chicago during the time. He lives alone so he only had 1 bed, to which this other kid (Waseem) from Detroit was sleeping in because Waseem was babysitting Akber's apartment. So there was a couch, and nothing else. No pillows, no blankets, no nothing. And this dude is a bachelor he doesn't have too many things in his apartment. Going home to sleep was too risky for either of us. So we decide to tough it out. He takes the couch. I take the floor. And I take a bag of basmati rice (you know those brown burlap bags) to use as a pillow.

I laid there, high on No Fear energy drinks, a few hours before a massive exam, still epically behind in reviewing, laying on the floor trying to get an hour of sleep with my head on a bag of basmati rice as a pillow. My dad used to tell me stories of the sacrifices they had to make back in Bangladesh to be students. Though I don't think I could compete with them, that moment was so broke, so ghetto, and so desperate (but Alhamdulillah these are good times), that maybe I could earn my place in the pages of the pain one has to go through to survive in this journey.

We wake up after an hour and a half, pray fajr, study, and then we go. I should also mention that Alhamdulillah I've gotten into the practice of reciting a handful of dhikrs every morning after fajr and every evening before maghrib. These dhikrs are so comprehensive in nature that it is very difficult to become worried and stressed throughout the day, knowing you took 15 minutes out of your day to remember Allah (S) and ask him for a ton of things. I also got into the practice of praying salatul hajjah every night before I pray my witr. On this day I prayed hajjah as usual, and then again right before I left for the exam. So after covering these bases, its difficult to become stressed or excessively worried.

We get in the car, we go, we walk, and we wonder where the heck is everyone. As we walk from the parkinglot, we start to joke that maybe the exam started at 7. Then the laughter becomes a nervous smile. Then we walk faster. And faster. Then we get to the hall and they are on question # 13 of the practical.

The exam has a written portion and a practical. The practical is X number of questions shown on the projector with 1 minute for each question. In previous quarters they would go back and show each slide one last time for 30 seconds. I was hoping they would do that, but after the last question the teacher said to take a minute and look over your answers - implying that this was the end and they wouldn't reshow the questions one last time.

Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah to make a long story short I quickly filled in A's for all the ones I missed and I turned it in, then I took the written portion and I left. The attitude I had towards the whole thing was that of a detached third person - and that is, this was very very funny. People trickled out, people asked me what the hell was I thinking, me and Asim spoke to the professors afterwards asking one last time if there was any way we could make up those questions (the answer was no), and there was nothing more we could do. But I didn't overly stress. Unfortunately Asim was freaking freaking freaking out, and I believe that undermined his performance on the written portion as well. But he is a smart kid, hardworker, so I'm sure his written portion was good.

Anyways, I just got the results back, and Alhamdulillah I passed the test. This story was for the books.

Amazin

It's amazing, I'm the reason
Everybody fired up this evening
I'm exhausted, barely breathing
Holding on to what I believe in

No matter what you'll never take that from me
My reign is as far as your eyes can see

I'm a monster, I'm a killer
I know I'm wrong, yeah
I'm a problem that'll never ever be solved

And no matter what you'll never take that from me
My reign is as far as your eyes can see

I'm a monster, I'm a maven
I know this world is changin'
Never gave in, never gave up
I'm the only thing I'm afraid of

No matter what you'll never take that from me
My reign is as far as your eyes can see

I'm amazin', yeah, I'm all that
If I ain't on my grind then what you call that?
Victorious, yeah, we warriors
We make history, strive off victory

Standing at my podium
I'm trying watch my sodium
Die high blood pressure
You even let the Feds getcha

I'm amazin', born on the full moon
I was bred to get it in, no spoon
That's why I'm so goose, summer time, no juice
Big family, small house, no rooms

They like, oh God, why you go so hard?
Look what he's been through
He deserves an applause

A great song

Hey guys, its been a while. Im just trying to work at double the speed I have a physio exam this Friday and an immuno exam this Monday but I am going to be super super super super busy this weekend so I'm going to lose all of Friday Saturday and Sunday so I have to squeeze in as much immuno studying this week as well before Friday so that kind of sucks. I just got done with male and female reproductive physiology oh my God I wanted to shoot myself those notes were so damn terrible and sooooooooo many things happen inside a womans body i wanted to kill myself multiple times sadaf was like "oooo thats so easy!" yea. ok. GnRH, LH, FSH, androgens progesterone estrogen thecal cells granulosa cells aromatase corpus luteum blah blah blah. I was supposed to be done with this stuff 2 days ago but the notes were soooo bloody uuuuuggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! I have onemore lecture by this professor something about pubertal physiology and man it aint lookin pretty. But once this is done hopefully if i can finish 3 more lectures by the end of the day (not including puberty) then it wud be not a bad day insha Allah. Then tomorrow i jussssst might be able to finish all of physio (it'll be a stretch) which leaves me 1 day to maybe maybe maybe bi idhnillah grind out maybe 3 lectures of immuno... then ill have to figure out a way to squeeze in 4 lectures of immuno over the weekend... which is gunna be very very very difficult. But o well.

Here is a song that i really like, both the lyrics as well as the musical talent behind it i really like the tabla play in the background if u can notice it. maybe one of the bangali viewers can translate this insha Allah. sorry guys i dont know how to embed this into the blog


http://www1.banglamusic.com/music/index.php?action=song&id=686

Warning... this video is not for kids

This is Hilarious. and im sorry if you people don't have a sense of humor. But it's perverted hahahahahaha

Back to the Grind

Well, I came back from Chicago last night. Our flight got delayed about 3 hours, and by the time we got home it was close to 1:30 AM as opposed to the original planned 9:30 PM, so yea that did a number on us who were flying back (and who had to pick us up) especially since we had school the next day. Needless to say, we didn't do so well in attendance today =D Whatever, it's all good. It is essential for the Muslim to adapt to his/her circumstances - to accomplish your goals no matter what curveballs you are faced with. Anyone interested in the hadith supporting this statement, let me know. It's quite interesting actually, props to Hafiz Amin of Darul Qassim.

My weight going to Chicago was around 231.5 - 232.0, This morning it was 234.6, so I am actually not too upset, considering that I threw all discipline of working out and eating right out the window for a full 8 days. But then again, it will take about a month to bring it down to a solid 230 pounds because this is resting metabolic rate we need to increase (ie. it isn't water weight, and to change my RMR won't happen overnight). It will also take that long because we have a stockpile of calorie rich foods from Chicago that will take a couple of weeks to deplete before we resort back to our military-discipline (and oh so palatable) fat & sugar free diet. But insha Allah since I will be here another 10 weeks minimum before Chicago, I am planning to be around 225 (insha Allah lower) by the time I go back again.

As far as weights are concerned, I maxed out at 245 on the bench, compliments to Marin for the spot. Tomorrow insha Allah at 4 AM bright and early I'll resume the weight lifting once more. I have a goal in mind with respect to how much I want to be benching by the end of the quarter, but I'd rather not say it in case I don't reach it. I would like to say however that even though the most I was ever able to bench was 225 back in college, I am happy but not content with 245. I do not want any props because props are not due here. A guy my size should be benching minimum 300 for any type of respect. I would like to give props to Adnan for weighing around 165 and benching 205, which is pretty baller.

Lastly I would like to thank everybody back home for the great time in Chi town; 1 week is definitly not enough especially coming out of the most hellish quarter of medical school, but Alhamdulillah it was a lot of fun while it lasted. It was a pleasure hanging out with you all, driving from place to place, eating everyone's food, and spending the night shamelessly.

I do want to say though that I did notice a lot of people gaining a lot of weight. Weight gain will occur as you get older by virtue of not being as active as you used to be when you were younger (less time to go outside and play basketball, etc). Do not set yourself up for metabolic syndromes (such as hypertension (high blood pressure), hyperlipidemia (high cholesterol), congesive heart failure (when the heart stops working), diabetes mellitus (sweet urine (hehe thats literally what it means)), or a stroke or MI (myocardial infarction = heart attack)). If you guys don't actively do calorie burning things, then before you know it you will be in a whirlpool of problems.

Also I noticed a lot of people are weak. Just because you are not obese doesn't mean you don't need to build strenght. You may sincerely not give a damn about lifting any weights, but Wallahi wallahi wallahi i am 100% sure your life will suffer in some way shape or form if you don't actively maintain a minimum muscle strength. TRUST ME... lift weights for 2 months (nothing too heavy or discouraging)and you will testify that there is a need for it. We will talk about this later because I am taking way too long to write this post and I need to get back to the books. By the way, I know i misspelled strength a hundred times, but I'm too lazy to run the spell checker. Oh, and yes, this above paragraph was for girls just as much, if not more, as it is for guys.

So please keep us in everyones duas. Make sure you keep in touch, comment, drop me an IM or text once in a while. And I will continue insha Allah updating as long as there are people willing to read.

Hilawrious

Free iPhone

Hey you guys, I'm trying to get a free iPhone Insha Allah. Even if you guys don't want one for yourself, can everyone click on this site and just complete one of the trial offers? There is a way to cancle it and not be charged for anything. It will only take a few minutes of your time. If you do end up paying a minimal amount for like shipping (of a free trial product) then I can cover that for you insha Allah. I appreciate it you guys. If you need more information on how to do it, then just hit me up.

http://www.YourFreeiPhone.com/index.php?ref=5744451