Wolves behind me.

So the film fest is finally over.  It was my first year doing captain shifts at more than one venue and as a result, I ended up with plenty of vouchers to enjoy the festival!  I saw 22 films in 10 days which is pretty good considering I had to volunteer during and festival and had school!  I saw Antichrist, Fish Tank, La Soga, The Disappearance of Alice Creed, Police, Adjective, Accident, Castaway On The Moon, Leaves of Grass, All Fall Down, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, Micmacs, The Time That Remains, Mother, My son my son what have ye done?, London River, Whip It, Prince of Tears, Max Manus, White Material, Mr. Nobody, REC 2 and finally Precious.

There were some definitely standouts among the 22.  Antichrist was ridiculous in its audacity... if you were ever interested in how it would look if a clitoris was cut with scissors, just watch it and find out!  Fish Tank was a solid piece of film making which reminded me a LOT of Aronofsky's The Wrestler, very gritty and real characters.  I still like The Wrestler more though.  La Soga had too weak of a narrative to do anything with.  The disappearance of alice creed was just plenty of fun to watch, if you can suck it up and get past the first 10 minutes which seems to set the tone of the film as torture-porn, however, it turns out much more lighthearted than that!  Accident was one of the best films I saw this fest: an interesting premise and a beautiful case study of paranoia, I am guaranteeing a hollywood remake within the next 4 years.  Castaway on the moon was also one of the better films, some important social commentary underlying the film, but just so much humor and feed goodness!  Leaves of grass was pleasant to watch, Norton was expectantly fabulous.  All fall down was a super experimental film, and clearly I was unable to appreciate it because it was super tough to get through.  The private lives of Pippa Lee was also easy to get through, despite being ridiculously formulaic and cliched.  Micmacs was a bit of a letdown coming from Jean Pierre Jeunet, but was still fun to watch!  The time that remains was an interesting comedic take on the Israel-Palestine situation.  Mother was about 30 minutes too long, way too easy to call but had a brilliant performance from the female lead.  Herzog's My son my son had enough Lynchian weirdness for it all to not make sense, but not enough to keep me interested.  London River was one of the best films, great acting, pacing and storytelling, despite how obvious the plot would turn out.  Whip it was just so much fun to watch, you can't really go wrong!  Prince of tears felt like 3 hours and was ruined with the shift from period piece to romance film.  Max Manus was one of the best films, although it felt a lot like holllywood for portions of the film, it was overall very well done!  White Material just didn't work for me on any level, I actually don't know why I was so detached.  Mr. Nobody was beautiful to watch and definitely had the most potential, however, the final product, although ambitious, was not all that it could have been.  REC 2 was a complete letdown, the directors got rid of everything that made REC one of the best horror films of all time.  And finally, Precious was overrated, Daniels used some cheap gimmicks to get the audience onto his side, plus it also helped that much of the talent was there for their capacity gala screening.

Anyway, enough about the films and the film fest.  Med school applications are due very soon!  I am applying to UT, Mac, Queens, Western, Dal and Calgary.  Ultimately, I would LOVE to stay in Toronto at get into UT, I have all of my roots here!  But alas, I will go to whatever school takes me if it comes to that! I got one of those "this is for real holmes" moments when I was doing my Dal application.  It is a very exciting time for all those applying to medicine.  Your future will be dictated to you by the presence or absence of interviews within the next 4 months, exciting times!

On a side note, I am running a half marathon on sunday, for which I have not trained for in a very long time.  This will not end well.  Oh well, i've already paid, i'll just man up and hope that the cheer stations will get me though!  A sub 2 hour half marathon is out of the question now haha =)

Time for sleep, good night world! =)

In an aeroplane over the sea

Random:

Sagar mentioning the fact that he had to referee some intramural basketball games and that he didn't have a whistle:

"WAIIIIIIIIII STOOOOOOOOOOOOP!!! FOUUUUUUUUUL!"

"That baby's blocking a beer run!" -Tom

"I'm so photogenic, but only the back of my head =(" -Me

"Who could not like the beatles? It's like saying you don't like air, or the sun, or happiness." -Vlad

Conversation about annoying physics girl in first year:

M - Man there is this girl in my physics class that just won't stop talking during class, she sits so far away from me but I can hear her so clearly"

S - Why don't you just tell her to shut up?

M - I can't cause if I were to say something, it'd be something like "BITCH SHUT THE FUCK UP!"

Hypothetical VCAA t-shirt to remember: a tshirt will all of the athletes names, number of glasses of wine and food choice (which the waiters use to serve you)

"I’m not insightful enough to be a movie critic, hmm.  Maybe I could be a food critic?  “These muffins taste bad.”  Or an art critic?  “That painting is bad.” - Andy Bernard

"why you talking shit motherfucker?" = "why you verbalizing feces maternal fornicator?"

Conversation about my potential future:

V - I think Mike will end up like this guy, not because he's asian or anything.
M - *look over to see an asian guy with glasses*
M - Of course it's because he's asian!

*upon realization that masteringchemistry is only worth 2%, in an extremely loud voice* "2%?! Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck that!"

Conversation about a professor:

S - Vlad thinks he is a dick
V - he's not a dick
M - fine, he is a penis
V - I don't know where to put my hand on it...

Reaction upon seeing an extremely young person on the gatorade commercial (what's G commercials):

S - Why is he on there?
M - BECAUSE HE'S G!!

Conversation about Rachel Getting Married:

T - You'd like it
S - Yeah you would
M - Did you watch the whole thing?
S - Yeah, most of it
M - Oh yeah? Prove it, WHO GOT MARRIED?

"He becomes significantly less attractive when he plays sports" -Sagar

So 3rd year is finished, I am super glad that was over, the second semester was a little harsh.  Just came back from a chronic pain workshop yesterday where I handled cadavers for the first time!  It was so amazingly cool but I was highly frustrated that there was still blood on the cadavers, they were SUPER FRESH.  I also got portions of my body scanned via ultrasound by a bunch of foreign anesthesiologists.  They scanned my supra scapularis, greater occipital nerve region at C1, ilioinguinal and iliohypogastric region, lateral femoral cutaneous nerve, and last but not least, my genitofemoral nerve (it is exactly where it sounds like it is, right beside the groin region).  At least it was fun to learn that my spermatic cord is intact and functional!  Good thing I got paid as well ;) hahaha

Something really nice happened to me durign exam period: I had a study patient for the epidural study and I was working in my office.  The janitor came in and did his job and I was friendly and started chatting.  Before he left, he told me that he had been working that floor in that department for over 10 years and no one has ever said thank you or even attempted to converse with him, he then told me that I would make a great physician someday.  That was really a surpirse to me, but nice nontheless!

Anyway, no big summer plans.  Just studying for my MCAT, working on this epidural study, playing volleyball whenver I can, starting to go for runs, trying to rescue my school induced state of fitness and working at the film fest!

=)