Yo, readers!!! No, I'm not talking about my period. I'm talking about this post! xP I was supposed to write it 3 weeks ago, but I didn't. Because, obviously, I have such great skills at procrastinating. So if you've been wondering about how my life has been lately, here I am - ready to share it with you! *hugs*
First, allow me to proudly announce that I have carried out a Self-Improvement Plan, and it was a SUCCESS!!! Let me elaborate:
1) For the past 2 months, I have been on a strict diet for promoting height, and I have grown from 152 cm to a stunning 164 cm!!!
2) I have been reading mastery books on chess, practicing up to 3 hours a day, and can now complete a round of lightning chess in just under 2 minutes!!!
3) I've been cycling for the past half year... and after much practice, I can now perform up to 62 DIFFERENT EXTREME BICYCLE STUNTS!!!
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Well, as you might have already suspected, none of the above are true. But if you fell for it, GOTCHA!!! =D Haha! I'm still my same old self, buddy. The same old Xing Yii you've always known. *winks*
Anyway, what this post is really going to be about is an experience of something I did (hmm, not really) for the first AND last time. It's... *drumroll* the DISSECTION OF A MOUSE!!
Well, I wouldn't say it was a great experience, nor that it was something I was really enthusiastic about. It was just something that came and passed. You know, like a fly. Uhm... Okay, so let me now tell you about it.
HOW TO DISSECT A MOUSE: 101
First of all, the mouse has to be knocked out with chloroform. This is so that it wouldn't feel anything when you put it into a pot of boiling water. No, I was just kidding. It is so that it would be more humane, duh. Anyway, that was done by the lab assistant several hours before, and by the time we were supposed to carry out the dissection, the mice were all already dead. So that tells you, kids, that you should NEVER overdose on chloroform - whether or not you're a mouse!
So after having checked to make sure that the mouse isn't going to regain consciousness - or come back to life - while you're cutting away at it, the poor critter is supposed to be pinned lying down on its back. And that is done by driving pins through it's palms (well, assuming that the mouse has 4... hands =.=). After that, the real thing begins.
This is where a dissection kit comes into the picture. It's a box with at least 10 sharp things in it - all of which are identical. Or at least, all of them looked identical to me. Clearly, I have no sense of biology! =.= *applause* So the first step... is to cut a hole in the abdominal skin. Then... *groans* It isn't easy to describe. You wouldn't understand what I have to say if you haven't seen the process for yourself. Therefore... it would be a wise decision to just skip the horror story.
Instead, I'll just share related stuff with you.
- Apart from the skin outside... there is actually something else that... uhm, holds us in a package. It's a membrane that holds all the organs together. The mice had it, and as I found out, so do we. I had absolutely no idea about this... uh, wrapper @.@
- Most guys are scary. You know, sick. Throughout the whole week, dissection stories were exchanged from all over. And some of these stories that managed to find their way to my ears... sound like they came out of a Stephen King novel!! There was a guy who mutilated his mouse until there was a whole pool of blood around it. And another one who cut off all the poor creature's feet, along with the HEAD! I mean, is that really necessary? =.= The worst part is that they seem to be really proud of it, taking photos and posting them on Facebook. 'Hey, look - it's the Headless Mouse of Sleepy Hollow!' Enough said.
- I also discovered that Biology is really something I was born to never go into. Actually, I kinda almost cried when my practical teacher asked me to be the one to dissect the mouse. I didn't touch it throughout the practical session, not even once. I just sat down quietly, watching, and wondering with a mild sorrow... about how the mouse would have spent its last day on Earth if it knew it was going to end up here, dead. With its internal organs all exposed. Yikes, the sentence before was really uncalled for.
And I didn't take any photos. There are plenty on Facebook which other people posted, but I don't feel like posting them here... Now, I would like to pay a tribute to all the mice and frogs and all other critters that have been sacrified for the purpose of education. I feel all sorry and sad for them, but I suppose it was for the greater good of mankind.
May they rest in peace >.<
