Smell

Though we believe that we are reasonable animals, in many ways we are similar with the wild animals.

Take our brain as an example, in the previous entry I have mentioned the strong relationship between the limbic system with the taste and smell functions. In fact, Limbic system is considered to be functionally elementary: it is responsible for the regulation of the emotion and thus direct the fight or flight response when we are endangered. Therefore, the outcome would be either to be, or not to be. (Many people considered it to be the most difficult question in lives though.)

It is more notable when we compare the limbic system with the neocortex, that is the most outlying part of the brain. It interpret the messages from the sensory organs and produce response to the motor organs, being the central commander of our daily livings. The input is not just about the fear, but consisting of precise muscle tension and possibly metabolic concentration, etc. The output are even more complex: it was not only about what you will do next (to run or jump), but also how fast you run and how high you jump.

Go back to the right track. The perceptions undoubtedly affect our emotion. But what kind of perceptions change the most? It is perhaps the smell. The odor of a person will perhaps be more distinguishable and memorable. For example, we come across with a person on the street closely, you can hardly pay more attention to the face (because you still have the watch out the road condition), but on the other hand, the odor of the person stimulates you the most.

To sum up, buy a good perfume is better than doing some useless make-up with make you look awkward.

Conditioning

The psychologists in the past had demonstrated the power of classical conditioning: when you give a beef to a dog, it salivates. When you added the sounds of bell ring with the beef, it salivates again. After repeating the procedure for some times, when you just give the sounds, the dogs still salivates.

Thus I solved the misery in my life: Why I could not get a good taste from meals when I ate alone.

I realized that the taste of a meal is heavily contributed by mood (and the smell sense, of course). Our limbic circuit in our brain, which is regulating our emotion, has a significant relationship with the taste and smell function. If you are low, then nothing is tasty. In this case, a good meal might be able to cheer you up. But it is also possible that you waste the good meal at all.

Furthermore, having good companies with you will undoubtedly enhance the favor of the dishes. The good companies give you good mood and energy. No wonder Richard Lam wrote a lyrics like this in 分分鐘需要你:

有了你開心啲
乜都稱心滿意
咸魚白菜也好好味

He was observant to notice it, though he might not understand the underlying principles.

In fact, the quality of other perceptions could be also altered by mood. In manic patients, they often perceive the sound that is louder than it should be. The color would be more enriched. However, the change of intensity could hardly be compared with the taste perception.

In conclusion, whenever you want to have a meal, be it a grand one or a simple one, get your friends with you.

頌

今日係我牛一。我要歌頌我呢幾年同幾位知心好友o既情誼。

話說今日同呢排好耐冇見o既小露寶食永年，講番以前往事。往事不離足球。我從來未忘記我地點樣係馬田五人場踢爛仔波，由一開始o既贏一球輸兩球，變做先輸一球贏兩球，有時同隔離中學班人踢，有時同啲阿伯踢，距離宜家，已有七八年。馬田足球場已經比政府拆左，話要起唔知乜野大樓。但係o係我心中o既記憶，永遠都唔會消失。

記得有一次踩單車由元朗去屯門，去到龍鼓灘我炒左鋪勁，崩牙流血，加上果時係醫學院都唔好開心，當時真係好無助。多得呢班友照顧我，帶我去醫院，我今生今世都無以為報。

光陰似箭，大家個樣都變左，我讀醫多年，已經變成一老頭。人間無常，好多事情都不由我地左右，唔到我地控制。你睇，吹水茶座個肥仔老細一轉眼就唔見左，馬田個足球場話拆就拆，趙中話唔掂就唔掂……我但求我地之間o既關係始終如一，你地令到以前o既我變成今日o既我，我願我未來o既日子都有你地o係我左右。我不敢想像如果冇你地，我會變成點，更加唔敢諗如果我冇左你地，我日後點算。

最後我以阿里士多德一句話作結，佢話友情：Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies. 愛情可能係短暫，但友情係恆久o既。

我相信。

Histrionic

Facebook is a social network without network. Said my Professor of Psychiatry.

I happened to realized the beauty of this statement until the very end of this academic year. There are no friends there though you thought you have many. No one will remember your presence unless you speak up something catchy or post up something nice.

In reality, life is not always easy and nice. People make photos pretending they are professionals. Oh my goodness. People make sound-bites that everyone likes to hear. They can get so many likes in a few minutes time. Everyone can do it. However, I just want to make use of the chance to tell a story.

沛公入秦宮，宮室帷帳狗馬重寶婦女以千數，意欲留居之。樊噲諫沛公出舍，沛公不聽。良曰：「夫秦為無道，故沛公得至此。夫為天下除殘賊，宜縞素為資。今始入秦，即安其樂，此所謂『助桀為虐』。且『忠言逆耳利於行，毒藥苦口利於病』，原沛公聽樊噲言。」沛公乃還軍霸上。 (留侯世家第二十五)

People will be pleased if they live in the comfort zone. They prefer something that are nice to their ears. But it does not mean that those catchy status would make a person good.

Francis

Another inspiration happened in the middle of the night, when I was weary and tired, sleeping.

It was our star professor FC.

He said: You have to understand the underlying causes of everything to understand medicine.

It was very encouraging to me because this time the dream could be linked to reality, unlike my previous one which directed me into wrong paths and wasted so many of my energy!

His voice was certain and firm. He was the star because he did what he told me. It was the basic science that brings us into the medical advancement. How could a tree live without putting the roots deeper into the soil and how could ponds collect water without the streams?

But when I tried to change my attitude, my roommate teased me and said: You can't be successful if you study like that this time. We need to memorize the fact to please the examiners.

He was definitely correct in this sense. As result equals to quality of study times quantity of study multiplied by efficiency, I could not put all the efforts into every subjects, studying their mechanisms. It will put me into the pull-up viva instead of a good pass.

Study Smart. The voice from the old surgeon hallucinated in my head when I realized it.

Beethoven

Let me end the hiatus of writing.

I do not have a thought block during my study time. On the contrary, I have a flight of ideas during my revision. Unfortunately the conceptions are not really related to what I have studied this year. Using the sense of a manic patient with expansive ideas, if these ideas are really to these four specialties, I could have put my name on the distinction viva list!

The first idea comes from Beethoven. He was a really good composer, we all know it. I happened to know more about him because my roommate tried to play some classical music with his little speakers. It was not loud but it got into the heart. It did not stop you from studying but boost up the morale.

Beethoven suffered from deafness in his later twenties. But what is the cause of it? In his time no one could ever  made a definite diagnosis except from the pathologist who dissected his auditory systems, saying the inner ear was expanded.

Anyway, nothing could stop him from composing. He did not make just a few pieces but many masterpieces. The romance from Fur Elise, the door-knocking from Symphony No.5 and the heavenly chorals from the Symphony No.9 marked his career. He was a divine composer who delivered the music from the palace of God. Only in the heaven could these music be heard.

It was the Symphony No.9 which inspired me the most. I had some special memory of this because I reckoned that there was a Cantonese version for the choral part, written by James Wong. The title was called exactly 歡樂頌. I googled it but was to no avail. That was perhaps one of the most beautiful piece of music in the world to me.

The most important message to me was: he was deaf, but he created the most beautiful symphony. Impossible is nothing. There was nothing that I cannot do.

The butterfly in my mind moves its wings.

Dialectic

Socrates is the philosopher. The only thing he knew was that he knew nothing. Therefore, he went to the market, he went to the streets, he went to the people, asking the definitions of the ideas that were involved in our lives. He asked: What is Justice? What is Love? What is Virtue? Indeed, we did not know anything about them at all (unless you are a better philosopher that Socrates)

Here I asked, what is the friendship between a man and a woman? I asked my roommate. He showed me a Youtube video, which showed an interview to some undergraduates in the state. The male students says, well, the friendship is a step towards a romantic relationship. The female students says, well, it does not differ with that between girls.

What about being a solider? What is the relationship between a solider and a general? I asked boys and I asked girls. Again, they gave me different answers: Boys acknowledged the existence of this relationship, saying that when there is no return from the girls despite the unconditional supports from boys, the relationship established. The girls, on the contrary, says it was normal to have some friends with you who are boys.

Oh my goodness. It was so complicated. I'd better go back to study the specialties again.