Aftermath:

It's finally over! My presentation's done (kudos to Awatef and Co.!!!), the written test has ended (which was better than I expected!), and my bro's recovering!!! *jumps with joy* So much so that he's back to bullying his older sister again *sheepish grin*
Ah well, when you gain some, you lose some.....heheh. So now it's three down, three more to go!!!!

I just realized (yesterday) that we M104s were given a two-week break. That's not bad, considering we had our CNY break like, a month ago?? *woot woot*

So what are my plans this time around? Top five on my list at the moment are:

1. Catch on my sleep, and CHILL!!!!






2. Watch a movie!! (not too sure what kind of movie yet, but my money's on black comedies atm. heheh.)









3. Return to Teluk Intan!!!
Yep, I'm going this afternoon with Dad, and I haven't packed my bags yet....*wails*

4. Catch up with friends!!!
Now this is gonna be a wee difficult for now, considering I don't know how long will I be staying with Grandma. *sorry folks*

And last but not least....

5. STUDY! *shudders*

It's already 12.10pm!!!! Omigosh, must start packing now! *aaarrrrggghh*

Have a nice day anyway. =p


PS: A big Thank You to all well-wishers!!! What can I do without you guys??? =D

This is definitely one of those bad days. Bro is currently down with some diarrhoea and fever; probably due to food poisoning. Dad is still in Teluk Intan, watching over Grandma, whose condition fluctuated in the last 24 hours....even bordering on death in the morning. Despite claiming to be fit and healthy, I can tell that Dad is not at all well - deprived of sleep, the constant worries, his fears. Sis is extremely stressed too in the last couple of days...poor girl. Mom is also overwhelmed; worrying about bro, sis, and Dad.

I always thought that problems are problems only when one perceived them to be. But what's eating me now is the fact that every 'issue' I have just comes barging in one after another! It's incredibly taxing, watching your problems grow day after day. I know that positive thinking will do me good at a time like this, but how the (hell) am I suppose to feel good, when everything feels so (goddamn) rotten??!!!

Try as I might, I cannot focus on anything, be it my studies, work, friends or social affairs. Presentation's tomorrow, exam's in three days, I am well aware that I'll be screwed if I blow the whole thing but I STILL CANNOT CONCENTRATE ON MY GOD-FORSAKEN WORK!!!

Is this some kind of test?? Whatever it is, you can bet that I am not amused at all.

Optimisim is definitely overrated on this one.

Have a nice day anyway. May yours be better than mine.

Got your attention yet? =p

The following is something that I have ripped out from a forwarded e-mail. Hope this will brighten your day....somewhat. heheh. Enjoy.

Some funny and crazy [useless too!] facts:

1. If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee.(Not worth the trouble)

2. If you farted consistently for 6 years and 9 months, enough gas is produced to create the energy of an atomic bomb. (Now that's more like it!)

3. The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the body to squirt blood 30 feet. *sweats*

4. A pig's orgasm lasts 30 minutes. (.......)

5. A cockroach will live nine days without its head before it starves to death. (Creepy.) (I'm still not over the pig.)

6. Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories an hour. (Do not try this at home...... at work maybe? =p)

7. The male praying mantis cannot copulate while its head is attached to its body. The female initiates sex by ripping the male's head off. ("Honey, I'm home. What the....?!")

8. The flea can jump 350 times its body length. For a human, that would be equivalent to jumping the length of a football field.

9. The catfish has over 27,000 taste buds. (What could be so tasty at the bottom of a pond?)

10. Some lions mate over 50 times a day. (Still not over that pig....*grins*)

11. Butterflies taste with their feet. (Something I always wanted to know)

12. The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue. (Hmmmmmm........won't go there)

13. Right-handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people. (What if you are ambidextrous?)

14. Elephants are the only animals that cannot jump. (That IS a good thing, rite?)

15. A cat's urine glows under a black light. (I wonder who was paid to figure that out)

16. An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain. (I know some people are like that....)

17. Starfish have no brains. (I know some people ARE like that too....=p)

18. Polar bears are left-handed. (so if they switch, will they live longer?)

19. Humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure. (What about that pig??)

20. The average bed is home to over 6 billion dust mites! (-_-")

21. Just twenty seconds worth of fuel remained when Apollo 11's lunar module landed on the moon.

22. Ten tons of space dust falls on the Earth every day.

23. Every year the sun loses 360 million tons.

24. If you attempted to count to stars in a galaxy at a rate of one every second it would take around 3,000 years to count them all. (good luck!!!)

25. Ernest Vincent Wright wrote a novel with over 50,000 words, none of which containing the letter "e."

26. There are 333 toilet paper squares on a toilet paper roll. (looks like someone's extremely free....)

27. Singapore only has one train station.

28. The Eiffel Tower has 2,500,000 rivets in it.

29. The Eiffel Tower has 1792 steps.

30. It takes about 20 seconds for a red blood cell to circle the whole body.

31. Every year, the Moon moves a further 3.82cm from the Earth.

32. Every minute in the U.S. six people turn 17.

33. There are more than 100 chemicals in a cup of coffee. (....I'm still NOT laying down coffee!!!)

34. Blue and white are the most common school colors. (how true)

35. On average, a 4-year-old child asks 437 questions a day. ( ok, now I'm having second thoughts of specializing in paediatrics....-_-")

36. The tip of a 2cm long hour-hand on a wristwatch travels at 0.00000275 mph (hmmm....okay....)

37. There is about 200 times more gold in the worlds oceans, than has been mined in our entire history. (GRAB YOUR SHOVELS! NOW!!!!!)

38. Human hair and fingernails continue to grow after death.

39. Termites eat wood twice as fast when listening to heavy metal music. *sweats*

40. The cockroach has a high resistance to radiation and is the creature most likely to survive a nuclear war. *more sweat*

41. Guinness Book Of Records holds the record for being the book most stolen from Public Libraries. (ROFLOL!!!!)

42. This email is read by more than 500 people each day.....

Have a nice day. =)

A few may be wondering why I picked this mp3 for my background music. Surely this piece is not an honorary music for the dead [Requiem]! one might think.

First and foremost, I find "Free Bird" rather soothing. The ensemble (violin, viola, piano & flute) somewhat calms my nerves and makes me happy everytime I listen to it, regardless of its short time-span and simplicity. =)

In addition, it is the opening theme of the anime "Haibane Renmei", which revolves on Death and Friendship - themes which I can identify myself with. Its characters (in particular Rakka and Reki) are also extremely well-developed, something which I seldom see in most J-animation I have watched so far.

Even the title (ie: Free Bird) reflects my yearning to be free one day. "Why the need to be free, when you ARE already?" you might ask. I guess I need to explain a little further:

I am well aware that I am not myself lately (my apologies to friends in uni). There were many shortcomings (I shall not indulge them here because it is simply futile to do so! =p) in the last couple of weeks, the majority of which had rendered me incapable of "thinking straight" anymore. Although many will heal with time, some might leave me scarred for life. Now I understand how it feels like to be a "prisoner of the Mind"; to walk in a dark labyrinth, seeing nothing but despair and desolation, forgetting what light was, and how it was like.

The battle has not been won, that I know. Nevertheless, I am now certain that some day I can finally free myself from Its clutches, and be just the way I was before, if not better. Yes, I may fall back to the way I presently am.....but if you could be my Candle [preferably a lighted one! (lameness strikes here)], I would very much appreciate that..... =)

Gee, here I am turning corny once more. Better end this entry first before things turn to mush. =p Anyway, hope you like this theme as much as I do! And if you would like more information regarding this anime, kindly click on the link below the Haibane picture on your top right.

Have a good weekend....or whatever that's left of it. *grins*

See that little black ant above? Not too bad, don't you think? And if I dare say so, some might even find it "cute"! ^o^

Then what about this:



Okay. So maybe not THAT cute anymore.....

Now how about finding a colony of medium-sized black ants, carrying white eggs/larvae above their heads, SWARMING with glee:

-at the windows...

-in your kitchen...

-beneath your tray of mugs, plates and cutlery....

-when you're famished and initially wanted a nice cuppa and buttered toast for tea???

O_o

First thought: "You know what? I'm not so hungry anymore...."

*Killer instincts activated*

------CENSORED--------

Aftermath:

Site of ant invasion - All clear.
Kitchen tables beneath trays - Spotless.
Windows - Squeaky clean.

No more black ants in sight.

Aaaah....back to just the way it was....

*Instant gratification*

*Killer instincts deactivated*

......this is bad karma for me.... [><_"]

This post is perhaps in response to a friend's blog entry on Change.

Part One:

It is never easy, growing away from those you once hold so dear. Try as one might to pull everything back together, hoping that things will be just the way they were, a little voice tells you, mockingly, that nothing will ever be the same again....

It is never easy, seeing conflicts of interests arising within your group of friends, breaking them up, drifting everyone apart, threatening to divide all....

It is never easy, to be in the middle, torn between friends, speechless; at a loss....

It is never easy, to watch a person change, from close friend to mere aquaintance, as the days go by....

It is never easy, keeping mum, shrugging it off, thinking, "It is just a (bloody) phase!!!" [oh how wrong I was about this one]

It is never easy, when one decides NOT to take any side(s); standing proud, alone, as a dark storm brewed...

It is ALSO never easy, watching, with growing realization (and increasing abhorrence), that one CHANGED as time flies too....

*Update: They (finally) removed the red and white 'Thou-shalt-not-enter' strips around the aforementioned escalator. Looks like we can use that route already, ionie....hehehe. Just hope that it's really safe this time*

[Hears a loud thud outside e-lab....'What was THAT???']

-_-"

I was quite right - parts of the library ceilings are now caving in, no thanks to leaky pipelines....

Oh dear.

First there was a metal bar which crashed near the escalator leading to the library (fortunately no one was ON the escalator at that time; students are now forbidden to use that route, although I saw a few people who wormed their way through this morning...)

Now this.

Ceiling repairs are underway nevertheless.

Makes me wonder what would be next....

I hope no one gets hurt.

The following is an interesting case history which I heard from my father two days ago:

"A 9-year old girl from Temerloh (in Pahang, I think) was brought into my clinic on Saturday morning. Her worried parents (who accompanied her) claimed that she had this abdominal pain in the last eight days. It was initially around the epigastrium, then it radiated to the suprapubic region. The pain was intermittent and became progressively worse as the days went by. The girl also complained of anorexia, nausea and loose stools. She did not have any problems urinating...."

"Her parents added that they had been to numerous doctors in their hometown. All diagnosed their child as 'having wind', and advised them to use medicated oil to alleviate her symptoms..."

"On general inspection, she was in obvious pain. Her temperature was slightly raised (low-grade fever), and on palpation of the abdomen, the suprapubic region was tender...."

"The two differential diagnosis I could think of at that time were: 1. acute appendicitis, of which the inflammed appendix is behind the rectum (retro-rectal appendix); 2. urinary tract infection (UTI)..."

"I requested a urine sample. Her urine was clear and later found to be normal (through the dipstick test). UTI has been ruled out, and that left us with the first diagnosis, which is a serious matter if no immediate action is taken..."

"Without further ado, I informed her parents about my findings and diagnosis, wrote a referral letter, and advised them to send her to the hospital immediately. There was not much time left, as the surgeon I referred her to might not be around by noon...."

"The trio left for the hospital...."

"It was a while before I received a call from the surgeon. The man said that the girl had been operated on, and true enough, it was acute appendicitis (retro-rectal). He went on saying that her appendix had in fact burst, but the contents (fortunately) did not spill into her peritoneum. Rather, the inflammed structure collapsed, forming a localized abcess. If it were not for my immediate referral, further complications might ensue, and the young girl could have died..."

I was naturally struck with awe. 'How did you know it was appendicitis, when this was an atypical case?', I asked him. He just shrugged it off, and answered that he had only seen about 3-4 such cases in the last 30 years of his medical career. Working experience, he said, taught him a great deal of things, and went on emphasizing that doctors make mistakes at times - "the one thing that really counts in medicine is LEARNING from one's past, and not repeating them tomorrow...."

Exceedingly proud as I am of him, this story nevertheless worries me a little. I am now in my third year, and there is still so much more to learn (in med. school) before I graduate. Burning questions remain:

What have I learnt so far in IMU? Where do I stand? Am I "people-person" enough (I highly doubt this one lor) to be what it takes? Can I cope with the load? Is everything I do now worthwhile? And can I adapt accordingly when situation calls for it....like water can?

More importantly - Is medicine my true calling??

Though I have always dreamt of following my father's footsteps, and yes, I am aware that there is always room for self-doubts, these uncertainties are now taking a strong hold. And judging from the way conditions are at the moment, they are here to stay....

...for a while. There is still hope now, isn't there? And I'd very much like to believe that. =p

Meanwhile, I shall anticipate THE day when muddy waters become clear and self-doubts dissipate; when I can stand tall once again, able to look at the Past straight in its face and declare, "You know what? After all the blood, sweat and tears...IT'S WORTH IT!!"

That day WILL definitely come. I know it. T'is' only a matter of time. And heart. *grins*

Well...it's a little late (sorry!), but HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!!! =)