Hi guys, I haven't updated in eons because there is nothing I want to post online, however, in the spirit of travel, and that of sharing my experience with my friends, i've decided that this is quite a good idea.

so for the duration of my trip, please read:

http://26daysineurope.blogspot.com/

Unprofessionalism Abound

Practice what you preach, they used to say. But not anymore these days. Despite all the ballyhoo about professional behavior and even topping it off with a farce of a conference, the teachers themselves can't seem to get their behavior right.

First, lecturers are not turning up for their lectures despite drawing a salary from the school. This is rather atrocious as it has not only happened once or twice, but it is occurring on a regular basis. Take for example the class: "Establishing Rapport with Patients." It seems that this lesson has been postponed a few times already and just this week, the lecturer decided that it's not worth his effort to come down. Well that's fine, but they only informed us on the day of the lecture itself. That's what "true professionalism" is about eh. Leaving people high and dry and clueless. It's no wonder some people take matters into their own hands and declare certain lectures "optional" since the lecturer is of the same opinion.

Second, despite having an agreed upon time and venue for a certain lesson, the teacher will, on the pretext of patient care, demand that we go all the way across the island to **H for lessons. It definitely did not go well with the students because it not only meant a waste of money since we have to factor in uncompensated additional transport costs, more importantly it was a flagrant waste of our time! It was as if the time of the students are so cheap and useless that we can be so readily manipulated from those atop high pedestals. Well Bah! I say. But at the very least I could say that I've learned something new from the teacher. It's just the traveling time that I'm rather disagreeable with, given that we have a rather heavy workload and we have life outside our hallowed course. Why do they not think that if they were to make the compromise they would only be inconveniencing one person, whereas if they were to force the students to compromise, the number of people inconvenienced would so much more.

No matter, the last one seems to take the cake. The teacher merely "forgot" about our session with him and inconvenienced a good 20+ students. We were all dressed up in formal attire and waited in school patiently for our arranged session, only for his secretary to call up the group i/c to say that the teacher forgot our lesson. Just like that. With a little slip of his mind, with its large and vast capacity, he has just inconvenienced another 20 odd people. Just because he thinks our time is worthless and justly so for him to manipulate. Bah bah bah.

it's a gahgahgah day

gahgahgah. that's the sound you make when your brain starts having seizures from the overloading of information. one of which is studying of metabolism of everything which is absolutely annoying since i can't quite remember it and am very certain that 4 weeks down the road i am going to be gahgahgah-ing again when i realise that all that mumbo jumbo has just been obliterated. not even a tunica vaginalis is left.

anyway, i am still stuck on nucleotide metab... i feel the allopurinol eating into my skin. and honestly i am talking crap now.
okay, so we know that UTP --> CTP (enz: CTP synthetase)
and the regulation of pyramidines is due to UTP and CTP --> which inhibits Carbamoyl Phosphate Synthetase II. And in the liver under stress, CPS I can synthesise CP for use in the cytosol. How cool is that lar. I wonder how the CP gets out.

so. i better get on cos the transdeaminases are missing me. and i really need to read up on the GABA shunt, which is really just a GAD = Glutamic Acid Decarboxylase
And what's hartnup's disease. oh yes, failure to absorb Phe, Trp... cos Phe --> Tyrosine --> DOPA --> Dopamine --> Norepinephrine --> Epinephrine. (Phe hydrolase)

Trp --> Serotonin --> Melatonin.
meh.

So much to do, So little time.

School has been quite hectic for the past 4- 5 weeks, with new work surfacing relentless and mercilessly burying us. It's really hard to imagine that CAs are just in about a month's time and there isn't really sufficient opportunities to revise. I am sure that I haven't been fully utilising my time to revise but long gone is the drive, the thirst for knowledge. I really want that drive back. It's like some part of me is missing and I really enjoy those moments back in JC, during olympiad and bio s sessions, where the feeling of eureka hits you. Maybe it's just me, taking it easy in medical school. But things aren't going to work out this way. Like a senior once said, the largest fear I have is to become a mediocre doctor. A bad doctor will be put out of practice and a good doctor glorified. The mediocre one will just float along trying to find his place in the medical system that's so heartless (to it's staff not patients). And we owe it to our future patients to be competent doctors who can fix their problems.

The main conundrum now is how to balance everything that I have in life. Schoolwork, revision and relationships. It's like Cardiac Output really. There is only so much that the heart can put out a minute and there are so many tissues that demand the extra perfusion. The only way the body deals with this without going into cardiac failure and/or shock is to prioritise the distribution of perfusion by systemic vasoconstriction and local vasodilation. Similarly, there's only so much time and mental effort i can put into things and all things are equally demanding. Medicine isn't exactly the easiest course but I don't really dislike what I study. It has reached the point of neutrality, not one where I'll get excited. I think embryology is interesting, yl asked me if i wanted to hear voon about tetralogy and fallot and the other parts of the development of the heart. My reply was no because I am really tired. Of course I am sure that would be an interesting lecture. The old kiasu me would have said yes resoundingly even before he'd finish his question. But now I am reassessing the supply and demand of time. We have no time to engage in frivolous academic pursuits. There's only one way we can go and that's forward. I am trying to forge through as much of the current workload as possibly, as impossible as it might be.

Anyhow, I do hope I do well for this CAs. As a testament to myself that NUS wasn't a wrong choice. That NUS didn't bury my aspirations and drive. And that Cambridge wouldn't have been better (i am lying to myself.)

The Olde Times

Just chatting with one of my old St John squadmates brought back memories of the stupid nicknames we used to call each other. They were usually inane and if I remembered correctly it all started with this much disliked figure. We shall call him ET.

Well ET was a snitch and liked to backstab his squadmates, he also happened to be very weak physically and an unfortunate homosexual. Then we came up with a wonderful nickname for this ostracised character - Ball-less Chicken. Well that's due to his rather neutered sexuality and the way he runs, which is uncanny to that of a chicken, unfortunately for the chicken.

Then there's the CSM (Corps Sergeant Major a.k.a. Chairman) who was named Cow. I've forgotten why he was named Cow, but I do suspect that it had its origins from the Cartoon Network programme Cow and Chicken. That's because Ball-less and Cow are always together with the teacher-in-charge. Ball-less would slime the rest of us for being slackers and errant rule-breakers while Cow, despite being in charge, would just remain silent and ho-hum to whatever tune the Teacher sang.

We have the Training Head, who was named Teddy Bear. I think it was because he like to clench his fist and stick them close to his chest giving this very act-cute posture when he runs. But damn he runs fast! Not only that, Teddy likes to make weird whining sounds too! Which further reinforces his nickname.

And then we have the Logistics Head, who was named Monster. He was a very muscular person and from what i've heard these days, he's taking part in a bodybuilding contest and weighs in currently at 107kg. Indeed a real monster. Monster was a real character during the St John days. He loved to press down the spikey hair of our platoon commander, so named Mickey Mouse, for unknown reasons. As such, he was given ludicruous punishments like run and touch the school gate. No matter, Monster still did it nonetheless and the running did play a part in bulking him up.

We also have a Mouse, just mouse, not Mickey Mouse. Mouse was called as such because he was a small person. At least, that was when he was in Sec 1 and 2. Thereafter, Mouse grew quite a lot and quite tall as well. Mouse loved to ask Ball-less to go F**k Spider, annoying Ball-less to no end.

There was also a Charcoal, whose other nickname was 1.0. Why 1.0? That's the Mean Standard Grade he got EVERY TERM, meaning Charcoal got straight A1s for all his subjects since God knows when. Anyway, Charcoal lived up to his 1.0 name and got the same for his O levels and was hence crowned one of the 11 A1 scholars in Singapore. And then, he had a new nickname. 11 A1s. Or just Eleven. :P Charcoal is currently quite disdainful of the government and is a armour signaller. The last time I chatted with him, he was slacking at the HQ.

We also had a Sloth. Sloth was a math genius but when it comes to training matters, he was very very very slow. He didn't like to move much and only did move when the situation absolutely required him to do so. Every single movement was deliberate and purposeful. Sloth didn't like moving unnecessarily. I haven't heard much from Sloth these days but I wouldn't be surprised to see him at Princeton, Stanford or Cambridge reading Mathematics. He won several International Mathematical Olympiad medals representing Singapore.

Last but not least, I was nicknamed Mink. The little furry creature that lived in a semi-aquatic environment. Why? It was because One Fine Day, I was using a bottle of Mink Oil (not mine even! It was monster's) to polish my boots. My platoon mates were interested in knowing what was that foul smelling concoction in my hands and... the rest is history. So, I was called Mink.

There were still a few other members that we didn't give nicknames to, either because they were too low profile or it wasn't special enough for me to remember.

Well anyway, the Good Old Days.

Inertia



It's funny to see how hard it is to change things. There needs to be some force, either intrinsic or extrinsic to effect some change. This mid-semester break, I've been rather lethargic. There seems to be this insurmountable inertia that keeps me within the house. It really takes too much effort to go out and there isn't really a reason to. Besides the OG lunch on Tuesday and Singapore Dreaming with YL on Wednesday, the furthest I've been is to the Prunus and Petai trails in MacRitchie Reservoir.

So what have I done so far? Nothing much I'd say. Blood, Carbohydrate Metab and Lower Limb. And I am getting pretty sick of the songs I have in my iTunes. I've been listening to the songs over and over again. Here's the breakdown from iTunes:

1. Forbidden City - 20x
2. Hang on Little Tomato (by Pink Martini) - 60x
3. The Best of Chopin - 15x
4. The Phantom of The Opera - 20x
5. Four Seasons (Vivaldi) - 8x
6. Rent - 9x

The one that totally breaks the record is 9 Million Bicycles. 140 times.

I can't believe I've been looping that song over and over and over again. It's like existing in this timeless environment, then suddenly, you realise that the day has just been wasted. Either in the company of Emeritus Professor Richard S. Snell or that of William Ganong. Which really speaks volumes about inertia because there isn't sufficient motivation for me to change the music that iTunes is playing at the moment.

Running has been rather bad lately as well. Having pull my left sternocleidomastoid (SCM), I can't really abduct my head to the left side so it's a bit hard to balance the head. I ran for about 10 minutes before it really hurt. Then I had to stop and that was on Thursday. And on Friday, I tried out this Creative MP3 player that had been lying around. I usually run with my Sony FM Radio but I decided to give Mr Sim and his product a chance. Unfortunately, it failed all my expectations. The cord length of the earphones were too short and there wasn't a clip on the player itself. I tried to hold it and run but it didn't work. I tried securing it with the elastic strap of the running shorts, but that didn't work too. It was just Bad when the music keeps stopping because the falling player pulls the earbuds off when it sinks into your pants. Very very annoying. It took quite a lot for me to try to overcome the inertia of using it, and it failed me. I used to hate running. Because my medial arches will hurt a lot as a result of a malformed talus (my guess, I have collapsed medial arches) and thus running wasn't enjoyable. But I reckoned I needed to lose weight and pass my IPPT, so I overcame that inertia. Running has become a twice or thrice weekly event nowadays so much so that the inertia is rather low. I really need a new running route because I am getting very used to the current one and it's quite boring. Perhaps I need to lengthen the distance as well, but again, there's considerable inertia.

And it took the Thais a long time before someone stood up and said, Enough is Enough. Time to stop the political impasse. Thankfully the coup d'etat was rather peaceful or it'll send shockwaves down to the Asian economies. I doubt we'll ever see that in Singapore. The military and the government are too closely linked. Top generals being SAFOS scholars and their classmates being Perm Secs or Cabinent Ministers. Speaking of politics, I've seen this great trailer on www.quicktime.com.

I've spent considerable time yesterday just looking at trailers because I can't remember the name of the movie I wanted to watch. I chanced upon this movie called "Man of The Year". It's where this comedian who comments on american politics decides to take his joke furthur by running for the seat in White House. The problem is, he didn't expect to win. Anyway, we need more feel-good films. Singapore Dreaming had a lot of tension and was generally quite a miserable film. And, the film that I was looking for: A Good Year. About this London I-banker who receives an inheritance of a vineyard and chateau in central Europe. And so the I-banker takes a break and visits his newly gained property and meets a nice lady. And so the story unfolds. Movies are great avenues for escapism. Sometimes, we just need to escape from our lives... There's just too much inertia. It's too hard to do anything.

Unless we have that energy. That drive. That motivation to overcome the many inertia. But even the most intrepid and energetic of us will soon be worn down. That'll come the day when enough is enough. No more of this rat race and paper chase. Just enough.

Forbidden City


The much publicized and promoted musical turned out to be a less than wonderful experience for me, with a hint of bitter aftertaste. On recommendation by a few of my friends, I decided to try out a local production. After all, it had the big names involved in it, including Kit Chan. Plus, I've heard a track from the previous run, which was pretty good.

Anyhow, I thought I had a good deal when I bought Category 1 tickets for $66 per pax, but alas, I was proven to be wrong. I didn't expect the hordes of little children to be filling up the matinee show. It was like a cultural enrichment event of sorts. However, the children were approximately 8 - 14 years old, with many coming from renowned schools. However, that was not the issue if they were well behaved. On the contrary, the theatre resembled a wet market. Children in the Cat 1 area were gesticulating at those seated in the circles as though it was Singapore Exchange. To add to the din, all were talking very loudy despite constant reminders from annoyed patrons (or teachers) to shush up. I was very very annoyed at the situation and felt utterly shortchanged. To be fair, I was dressed rather casually as compared to a couple who was seated next to me. They were dressed very nicely as though they were going for prom or certain Dinner and Dance event. Sadly, they seem to be rather annoyed at the circumstance they found themselves to be in as well. The caveats of buying cheap tickets for a matinee, sigh. No matter, we expected the children to quieten after the show has began. To our horrors, some of the little brats made cat calls and screamed as though this was some Jay Chou concert. It was not only disturbing for the cast, it was particularly bad for the Cat 1 seats and the sounds from the circles reveberated towards the center of the Esplanade Theatre.

Another bone to pick was that Kit Chan decided that she won't entertain the kids and took a little rest! Which was really horrid. I mean, that's the whole point of seeing the musical isn't it? The only mitigating factor was that her understudy proved to be rather good as well, so I guess we didn't feel so cheated, but still, it's Kit Chan that's missing. It's a pity that S didn't have time on tuesday evening, else I think the experience would have been better with Kit Chan sans the annoying children.

Complains aside, I'd say that it was a wonderful musical. The music was very well composed and the lyrics flow very well. The storyline was pretty coherent, however, according to Straits Times, it's historically inaccurate and Cixi (Yehenara) is portrayed as a misunderstood character. She was actually a powerbitch and a murderer who brought the downfall of the Qing Dynasty by her fears to modernise. No matter, I'll take it just as fiction and for it's musical value. Perhaps I'll be seeing more local productions in future...