Kidneys man, like, whoa

I was a little let down by the bodies exhibit. As I anticipated, I could not take photos, sorry. I think because I spent 4 months dissecting a human cadaver myself, my level of knowledge was at a level far beyond the intended audience for the show. I also found quite a few errors in their labeling of structures. So I think my own expectations were too high. My fault. With that being said, they did have a lot of pathological specimens that I would never have seen without the show. They showed all the organs and how disease affects them, like the damage to the lungs from smoking, stomach ulcers, strokes, cirrhoses of the liver, etc. The best thing though was the circulatory system casts. They take a human body and inject some kind of polymer into the vasculature and let it harden. They then dissolve away all the flesh from the hardened polymer so that all that is left is the branching of the arteries and veins of the body. It was so cool to see the blood supply patterns of all the organs. The kidneys are amazingly finely vascularized. Mind blowing. So, if you get a chance to go see the exhibit, it will definitely be worth it. Just don't expect to see every little detail of anatomy described.

At the end of the exhibit they have this dude answering questions about the show. He was innocuous enough, but his intonation was nerve grating. It was exactly like the voice of the guy in the movie American Splendor. In the movie, the main character, Harvey Pekar, has a friend at work named Toby Radloff. Toby is a self-proclaimed nerd and has a stilted, almost autistic way of speaking. It is similar to the way Comic Book Guy talks in The Simpsons. Anatomy boy tonight had the same voice. I wanted to beat him over the head with a plasticized spleen.

mmmmm viscera

I am going to go see the bodies exhibit tomorrow in NYC. I'm very excited. The exhibit consists of human specimens that have been "plasticized" and posed in various more or less artistic positions. Plasticizing involves taking human remains and preserving (embalming) them, then dehydrating them in acetone and infusing them with a polymer of some type. Wait, I'll bet the posing comes before the plasticizing. Yeah, you don't really care. I sincerely doubt they'll let me take pics there, but if they do I'll definitely post them. My anatomy lab partner Minerva is going with me. Time to put all those hours in the anatomy lab to work! For those of you who don't know me, this experience for me will probably be as close to heaven as I will ever get.

Kosher Keg Stands

What?! It's only been about a month, I'm right on schedule!

Paris sucked.

The Louvre sucked:

















The architecture sucked:


















The gargoyles sucked:



















Even Charlemagne sucked:




















The gay bars were pretty good though:


















So after living in SF for several years, I came to expect a gay bar to have certain definitive characteristics. Do you see any rainbow flags outside that French bar? Any mustachioed burly men milling about in assless leather chaps? Yeah, neither did I. It's ok though, I'm gay friendly. It's ironic, the gay Frenchman is not at all flamboyant. Perhaps they want to distinguish themselves from the straight French men.

The latest set of exams were last week. Sensing a pattern here? Each blog update references a block of exams that just finished? This time it was Renal Phys and Pharmacology. After a rather disappointing performance in Cardiovascular Phys, I performed more to my own expectations on these. Though after having completed a PhD in Pharmacology, the exam we just had in it was not terribly challenging.

The day of our last exam we had an all-school picnic, complete with Kosher hamburgers, Kosher hot dogs, and Kosher kegs. It was nice weather and the whole 1st yr class hung out outside until late in the night. I had one of those nights where 2 or 3 beers, which usually wouldn't even fill the holes in my back teeth, knocked me the fuck out. Fortunately I was in control enough to avoid making a complete ass of myself. I also judiciously avoided the Kosher keg stands and Kosher beer bongs. I think we all breathe a Kosher sigh of relief.

India plans are moving along. I was awarded a fellowship (i.e. cash) for the trip which should about cover my airfare. I have an appointment to get plugged with all the various and sundry vaccines that will keep me alive for the month. All I have to do now is make my way to the Indian Consulate in Manhattan to get a Visa.

Until next time. Mazel Tov.